THE RELATIONSHIPS AMONG ALTERNATIVE MEASURES OF FISCAL CAPACITY, LOCAL TAX EFFORTS, AND SELECTED SOCIO-ECONOMIC CHARACTERISTICS FOR K-12 NEBRASKA PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICTS (K-TWELVE)

Purposes. Study purposes were to: (1) devise and illustrate results of alternative measures of relative fiscal capacity to support education through local tax efforts, (2) determine relationships of selected socio-economic factors to local tax efforts, and (3) determine relationships that existed between local fiscal capacity and tax effort in selected K-12 Nebraska public school districts. Major Findings. (1) The variance in fiscal capacity was reduced when measured by adjusting the property tax base by weighting personal income and assessed valuation of real property equally relative to the variance in capacity measured by assessed valuation of real property or by the product of assessed valuation of real property and personal income relative to statewide average personal income. (2) High tax effort districts exhibited below average assessed valuation, above average property tax liability, and median age of adult residents, 49.0 years. (3) Low tax effort districts exhibited above average assessed valuation, below average property tax liability, below average K-12 enrollment, and median age of adult residents, 49.0 years. (4) High tax effort districts showed significant correlations between tax effort and median age of adult residents (+.4407) and percentage of students enrolled in public scholls (+.6484). Mid-high tax effort districts showed significant correlations between tax effort and percentage of adult residents who were high school graduates (+.5478). (5) The correlation between fiscal capacity and local tax effort was -.4867. Conclusions. (1) Fiscal capacity measurements using both personal income and assessed valuation are superior to measures using either indicator alone. (2) The method of integrating personal income into a state aid equalization formula is vital to the goals for the program. (3) School district residents tend to reduce their tax effort to support public schools in order to preserve resources for support of non-public schools