NBC (5 On Your Side): Taking a closer look at St. Louis Public Schools’ budget
As St. Louis Public Schools are looking to the year-ahead budget, officials are talking about money going out – raises to make the district more competitive and keep up with cost-of-living increases – but they’re not talking about the money the district never received; specifically, corporate tax breaks.
School districts in St. Louis never receive tens of millions of dollars per year because companies receive subsidies that reduce how much they pay in property taxes, sales taxes and other taxes and fees that would otherwise go to public services.
Byron Clemens with the American Federation of Teachers, Local 420, told NBC 5 the district should look closer at those spending patterns, a focus of a recent Good Jobs First Report that came out about tax increment financing (TIF) and tax abatements.
“They analyzed all the school districts locally and found there was a disparity among Black and brown and impoverished districts and other districts about how large the TIFs and tax abatements were,” Clemens told NBC. “And in St Louis City’s case, we’re talking about $260 million over the last five to six years, and it’s gone up since then. So if we’re really talking about balancing the budget, everybody should pay their fair share. We don’t want to be misunderstood. We’re not saying no TIFs, no tax abatements, but they should be reasonable. And, everyone should be paying something.”
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