These are fascinating numbers. If you subtract a town’s share of state students from its share of state aid, you can create nice ranking of net taxpayers (for which the number is negative)and net tax eaters (for which it is neutral, or, most often, positive). The top ten taxpayers include Portsmouth, South Kingstown, North Kingstown, Lincoln, East Greenwich, Westerly, Cumberland, Barrington, Cranston and Warwick. The top ten tax eaters include Providence, Central Falls, Pawtucket, Woonsocket, Bristol/Warren, West Warwick, Burrillville, Foster, Glocester, and New Shoreham.
Now, tell me, Andrew, how many votes are there in the top ten list? How many have Democratic Reps and Senators who have, year after year, voted for all that state aid to the tax eaters? Oh, yes, while also voting to double our spending on social welfare (and no prizes for guessing the cities and towns where most of that goes).
The battle lines for the 2006 election are getting clearer all the time, aren’t they?

Interestingly, at the current overall level of state support for education, an equitable distribution formula would provide even less for the communities at the bottom of the list. More, not less, of total education spending must be provided from the state to reduce the overreliance on property taxes to fund education.

Tom,
The facts are straightforward, no “spin” is needed – Rhode Island ranks at the bottom of the list in providing state aid to education (about 43rd in the country, about 37% of overall education expenditures versus the national average of 50%). Andrew did a great job of showing the distribution in “per student” terms, which underscores the poverty impact on educational performance (turning the list upside down gives a pretty good ranking of educational performance by community). Gary Sasse will tell you that a state that generates the same amount of tax revenue from the property tax as it does from a combination of income AND sales tax ($1.8 Billion in each case) is out of balance.
Despite the expectations of some who post here, in the short term, the overall tax burden is not going to decline in this state without a dramatic impact on services, so ensuring that the tax burden is fairly distributed is crucial. In the long term, the only way to grow the tax base is to attract more business, and to solve the wage gap issue by increasing compensation of lower paid employees, which is an area that lags in Rhode Island. Universal health care would help a lot as well, but that is a topic for another day.
Bob

Clearly, my willingness to use my own name on these posts should answer the “courage” question. And while they are two separate issues, I do not rule out cutting corporate tax loopholes (which would increase taxes on businesses taking advantage of them) or even raising taxes if necessary to balance the budget. However, what I was discussing was the distribution of the tax burden, and even if the budget was balanced, I believe (as does RIPEC) that we over rely on the property tax to fund education specifically and government generally. Most Rhode Islanders would be better off paying more in income taxes and less in property taxes. Since many will not trust my math, please do your own and report back if you take this topic as seriously as I do. Or, you can continue to take anonymous shots at the messenger, which requires a lot less work.