$100,000
Indiana is the latest to join the list of states with outrageously expensive school voucher programs that attract primarily affluent students already enrolled in private schools. The average recipient of a state-funded scholarship to attend a private school in the state of Indiana is part of a family earning about $100,000 annually, according to a new report by the Indy Star released this week. The average participant is a white female who has never attended public school and from a family making more than $99,000 per year, dispelling the notion that scholarships are for the benefit of poor children of color. While private schools educate just 7% of children in Indiana, the program receives 36% of state expenditures for K-12 education. The scholarship program launched in 2011, but income eligibility requirements were eliminated last year, a trend that has been repeated across the country after similar scholarship programs launch, resulting in skyrocketing costs causing major deficits in state budgets. Indiana initially faced a program cost of $15.5 million, and the program is expected to exceed $600 million this year, making it one of the most costly programs in the nation.
$5.00
The State of Maryland cleared the way for another tool in the affordable housing toolbelt earlier this year, allowing local entities such as the city of Baltimore to impose higher taxes on vacant buildings. While Maryland’s exact tax rate is still to be determined, the law was modeled off of a similar one in Washington, D.C. which sets the tax rate for vacant properties at $5.00 per $100 in assessed value, compared to $.85 per $100 for occupied residential properties.
So-called “vacancy taxes” are also in use in cities like Oakland and Berkeley, where taxes are adjusted by $3,000-12,000 annually for properties that sit empty more than a set number of days a year, with exceptions made for health, military service, natural disasters and other considerations. San Francisco also passed a similar measure via a referendum that went into effect in January. The entire country of France enabled similar policies in 1999, resulting in a 13% reduction of vacancy rates in taxed municipalities.
Proponents say that such measures will incentivize urban development and reduce blight, where developers and property owners will be faced with a choice to either renovate or divest. Vacancy taxes targeting office space for conversion to affordable housing may be especially effective as teleworking remains popular after the COVID-19 pandemic.
3,368
Last year, 3,368 Nebraska families utilized the Double Up Food Bucks program, a joint effort between the Department of Health and Human Services and the University of Nebraska Cooperative Extension, supported by other community partners. The program launched as a pilot program in Detroit in 2009 and was adopted by Nebraska in 2017. It effectively doubles the value of SNAP benefits for purchases of fresh fruits, vegetables and herbs at participating local grocery stores and farmers markets, directing dollars toward small local grocers and agricultural producers throughout the state. Participants in SNAP programs are automatically eligible for participation. With 44% of Nebraskans reporting that they get at least some of their food from farmers markets or CSAs, programs like the Double Up Food Bucks can help make SNAP programs go further and make farmers’ markets and small grocers more sustainable.
4 million
Common policy proposals are rare among opposing presidential candidates, but in this election cycle, both contenders seem to signal a willingness to advance policy that would exempt tips from federal income taxes. However, taxation experts on both sides of the aisle offer warnings. The Tax Foundation proposes that the proposal may fail to provide relief to the majority of low and middle income earners that are not in tipped professions, which only make up about 2.5% of the workforce, or about 4 million people, and instead recommends an expansion of the standard deduction for tax relief. The concern is shared by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), who also outlines a concern for more workers being incentivized to take roles that rely on tips, which tend to be less stable than incomes of non-tipped workers. This, they warn, could cause an increase in poverty and wage theft for these individuals. Instead, ITEP suggests an expansion of Child Tax Credits and Earned Income Tax Credits to provide relief for low income workers, as well as an increase in the minimum wage. Both organizations raise concerns that clever accounting could be utilized by attorneys, accountants and other professional service providers to lower their income tax obligations.
Would you like to take a deeper dive into topics like education, housing and food security? Join us September 18 for our 2024 Fall Policy Symposium. You can register here. Seats are limited, so don’t delay!