A $10,000 teacher pay raise.. without raising taxes

The "conservative" perspective for teacher pay raises...
   Something that big-spending corporate legislators can rarely do these days is to "think outside the revenue box", in order to provide additional public school funding and a teacher pay raise - without raising taxes. Governor Fallin has even suggested that if we could only consolidate most public schools in Oklahoma, teachers would receive a giant pay increase. While the Governor knows this inference is not true, she really believes the only way to provide teachers a pay raise is to raise taxes on the working poor and middle-income Oklahomans. This belief of Governor Fallin and her corporate cronies is also very far from the truth.
   Right now, in Oklahoma, almost $1 billion in property tax revenues are controlled by municipalities, which would normally go to public schools if it weren't for Tax Increment Financing (TIF) used by cities. TIF is an increasingly popular way for Oklahoma cities to promote economic development, as approximately 30 municipalities with 60 TIF zones are acquiring property tax revenue, which would normally go to public schools statewide. The 30 cities in question have often convinced the local public school that by supporting the TIF, the local school will receive more revenue for teachers and their school. The fact of the matter is - it's true! The 30 public schools within the 60 TIF zones will receive more funding for teacher salaries and school operations... at the expense of the remaining 497 public schools. In other words, what the "dirty thirty" have received has come from all the other "no-TIF" schools. (Note - There are a few TIF schools such as Blanchard which have received virtually nothing from the city TIF, primarily because it usually takes several years for the TIF to start collecting revenue.)
   According to Greg Jungman, Norman Ward 4 Council member 2012-2016, in a Norman Transcript editorial November 12, 2017: "Norman Public Schools (NPS) claims that the TIF creates $680,000 in additional state funding for our schools - enough to hire about 15 teachers." This claim failed to explain where this money comes from. It is taken from other school districts in Oklahoma.
   ... NPS ends up with more money due to a TIF because in Oklahoma, the state funding formula equalizes funding across schools. As a district generates more ad valorem (property tax) revenue, the State kicks in less formula funding. State funding and ad valorem revenue trade off-on, essentially, a dollar-for-dollar basis.
   Any ad valorem within a TIF district is excluded from the state equalization formula and does not trade-off with the district's state funding. The city TIF, though, splits ad valorem revenue and some goes to NPS. Since this ad valorem originates within a TIF, it is uncounted in the equalization formula. In receiving this portion of the TIF ad valorem, NPS "double dips" and collects both the ad valorem and the state funding - funding that would have gone to other schools.
   So, the increase in NPS's budget comes directly from the state-wide allocation for education. Since every dollar of state funding for Norman is a dollar not available to other schools, 15 additional teachers for Norman means 15 fewer teachers in other Oklahoma schools.
   The city of Norman, however, is not the biggest recipient of state education dollars at only $680,000. The Oklahoma City Council just passed a TIF zone, in which OKC Public Schools will receive approximately $60 million from other "no-TIF" schools. The bottom line for teachers and public schools statewide is this:  If Oklahoma eliminated all TIF's immediately, our public schools could receive a $500 million influx of ad valorem revenue, which it should already receive. Teachers could receive a $10,000 pay increase, without raising taxes. (Don't think that it can't be done. California eliminated TIF subsidies 5 years ago, when Governor Jerry Brown issued an executive order to eliminate TIF - and returned $ billions to California Public Schools. Think about that..)
   Another definitive example of a city acquiring state aid for a school at the expense of all other public schools in the state - is the Western Gateway TIF District in south Oklahoma City. The Humphreys Company... (does the name sound familiar) has convinced the OKC Council and Oklahoma City Public Schools that half the acquired ad valorem revenue ($60 million) will be used to build two new charter schools in the district. Doing the "developer math" results in $60 million being taken from all other state public schools. A further analysis of this one TIF district reveals that $60 million could be used to provide a $1,500 raise for every teacher in the state... or two classroom teachers for each school district in the state. The corporate developer will build two new charter schools, at the expense of all public schools and their students. As corporate industry is calling for consolidation of public schools, the same corporate executives are building additional charter schools (its called corporate math). With the 2nd special session of the year starting Monday, Dec. 18, it's a pretty sure bet that nothing will be done before Christmas, and it's another sure bet that the only teacher pay raise will be born on tax increases, and not on "thinking outside the box".
   In summary, a conservative state legislator should write the bill for eliminating TIF in Oklahoma, so that each Oklahoma teacher can receive a $10,000 pay raise... without raising taxes on the working poor and middle income earners. Of course, since there are far fewer conservative lawmakers than there are corporate lawmakers at the Capitol - its a safe bet that any teacher pay raise will include tax increases... but maybe not, we'll see what happens this Spring..