Schools see potential for funding in TRIM repeal

Some board members mull push to scale back tax cap

‘‘I definitely think that it’s an item that will be discussed extensively among school board members,” Prince George’s school board chairwoman Verjeana M. Jacobs said. ‘‘We always talk about thinking outside of the box and keeping programs going ... and we’re facing some tough times, so we have got to do things that might not be considered the most popular.”

After approving the $1.68 billion fiscal 2009 budget — which left no room for planned expansion of programs at the elementary, middle and high school levels — officials said continued improvement of test scores would hinge on more funding in fiscal 2010 and beyond.

‘‘The money has to come in from somewhere,” said board member Pat Fletcher (Dist. 3) of Landover, the board’s most outspoken advocate for a temporary repeal of TRIM. ‘‘We don’t have as much money coming in as we did in the past. ... People never understood the impacts of [TRIM] and now we’re seeing the impacts of it today.”

Superintendent John E. Deasy has not spoken publicly on the issue. School system spokesman John White said the school board, not the superintendent, takes public positions on policy and legislative issues.

During a Jan. 25 discussion at one of the board’s occasional Reform Governance in Action (RGA) meetings, which are held at the Radisson Hotel in Largo, Fletcher asked Deasy if the school system would ‘‘endorse” an effort to repeal TRIM. Deasy said the extra taxes would not be guaranteed for county schools, according to minutes from the meeting.

If county officials could promise that extra money from a TRIM amendment would be allocated to Prince George’s schools, board members said they would support the effort.

‘‘If it’s for education, I’d go for it,” Jacobs said.

To institute a TRIM ballot initiative, county officials would have to collect 10,000 signatures from people supporting a TRIM change, or the Prince George’s County Council could put it on the ballot.

At-large board member Donna Hathaway Beck said maintaining academic improvement would require greater funding to expand initiatives — such as the college-level International Baccalaureate program — to the entire school district in coming fiscal cycles.

‘‘When you have a declining sum of money, then you really have to take every option seriously,” she said. ‘‘We’ve been flush for a few years, but now we’re eating through the fund balance and there’s less money coming from the state. ... If you want to continue major initiatives that are costly, then you have to look at where else can you fund this.”

County school officials said Prince Georgians have been hesitant to support a TRIM amendment over the last decade because it would have given more money to a bickering, dysfunctional elected board and the appointed board that followed. With the elected school board returning in 2006 and Deasy entering his third year as schools chief, county residents might be more open to a TRIM amendment, some officials said.

‘‘Does the community believe the school system is showing enough change in terms of leadership to support a TRIM initiative that would go to the school system?” Hathaway Beck asked.

The original TRIM legislation held property tax collection to the same dollar amount taxpayers paid in 1978. A 1984 ballot initiative tweaked the law, creating a system in which the property tax was calculated based on the current, assessed value of the property. This increased property taxes for homeowners as property values have skyrocketed over the last 20 years.

Judy Robinson, a longtime Prince George’s activist and a leading advocate for TRIM since it was first passed 30 years ago, said county schools might reap the benefits of a TRIM adjustment, but residents’ property taxes could go through the roof. Even with TRIM in place, Robinson said property taxes on her Hyattsville home have jumped from $3,200 in 2003 to $4,700 in 2007. She expects to pay more than $5,000 this year.

‘‘I’m not unsympathetic toward the school system,” said Robinson, who ran for the county school board in 1996. ‘‘None of us are anti-education. You won’t find anyone who wants children unprepared, but at what cost to the entire county.”

Robinson said that even if school officials advocate for a temporary adjustment to TRIM, once their budget increases, the adjustment will become permanent.

‘‘Once the front door is open, the cow is going to go out and you can never close it again,” she said.

E-mail Dennis Carter at dcarter@gazette.net.