Underfunded Federal & State Mandates

Start fully funding legislative mandates! If the legislation is important and worthwhile, then the elected officials who authorized the legislation should raise the taxes necessary to pay for the obligations imposed on local towns and municipalities. Property taxes were never intended as a vehicle for paying for such things as residential treatment for children with special needs or for taxi cabs to transport homeless children to and from school each day. When Federal and state mandates are not fully funded, local government loses its discretion and, without a means of raising additional local revenue, non-mandated programs suffer. Because Proposition 2 1/2 limits available funding, without repeated operational overrides, regular education students will soon be in classes approaching 40 and 50 and our buildings will begin falling apart. Legislators must closely examine all mandates and decide what they are willing to fund through increases in income taxes and stop passing the responsibiltiy along to those who pay property taxes. The system is in danger of collapse without immediate attention to this grave situation. The cost of worthwhile mandates should be borne through income taxes, not property taxes!