Question 2: Education Funding

Results

This measure passed.

The gist

If passed, this referendum would add a 3% tax on income above $200,000 to create a fund to increase teacher salaries.

Ballot question

“Do you want to add a 3% tax on individual Maine taxable income above $200,000 to create a state fund that would provide direct support for student learning in kindergarten through 12th grade public education?”¹

Tell me more

This referendum would take the money raised by the new 3% tax on income above $200,000 to create a Fund to Advance Public Kindergarten to Grade 12 Education that will be used to pay for “direct support for student learning.” This means it will be used to pay teachers and staff who directly work with students. Money from the fund will be allocated using the existing school funding formula.

Follow the money

Annual Revenue: $142 million (with an estimated $12 million increase each year)¹

The money will be used to:

• Fund the Fund to Advance Public Kindergarten to Grade 12 Education.
• Money from the fund will be used to pay for “direct support for student learning”, which means it has to be used to pay teachers or buy supplies for the classroom.

The money will be coming from:

• A 3% tax on income above $200,000

Pros

The primary arguments for this referendum are:

• Paying teachers more will help improve education.
• Top earners can afford to pay more taxes. The new tax would bring some taxpayer back to the tax rate they were at in 2011.²
• The public voted to increase education funding in 2004, but the legislature hasn’t found a way to fund that.²

Cons

The primary arguments against this referendum are:

• Funds must be used to pay teacher salaries. They can’t be used for administrative or clerical staff or to pay for any other school costs, such as building repairs.
• The existing funding formula that this will use favors larger cities over rural areas.
• The increased tax would raise the rate for income over $200,000 to over 10%, which is the second highest in the country. This might deter high income earners from living in Maine.
• This promotes a piecemeal approach to budgeting.²

Further reading

• Full Text
• Ballotpedia Article
• Maine PBN Maine Calling Debate: Audio (52:48) | Video (49:49)

References

1. Dunlop, M. Maine Citizen’s Guide to the Referendum Election. Accessed October 7, 2016. ↩ ↩²

2. Maine PBN. Debate: Ballot Question 2. Maine Calling. Accessed November 7, 2016. ↩ ↩² ↩³