Back in his younger “big hair” days, tennis star Andre Aggasi used to hawk Canon cameras under the ad line “Image is Everything.”
I’ve spent most of my career arguing to an industry (and society) in love with that concept that substance needs to be in the mix somewhere as well.
That aside, I’m well aware that what something is can be determined in large part by how something’s presented.
Ad men have gotten rich on this concept for years.
But no ad men were in sight when local school districts offered versions of Governor Ed Rendell’s promise to ask voters to switch part of the tax burden from properties to personal incomes.
In fairness, superintendents earn their degrees by knowing how to educate children on the three “R’s” and not on how to educate a largely uncaring public to a complicated bit of public policy.
Still, I opened the letter from my local school leader with some eagerness, hoping that light would be shed on the darkness cloaking the issue.
It basically broke down as a class war.
If you are a two income family making at least “X” then shifting the burden isn’t in your best interest.
If you are poor or elderly and own property but don’t work then sticking it to the working man is the right move for you.
Conventional wisdom maintained that since the largest and most consistent block of voters are over sixty, a plan to go after income could have some legs.
Imagine my surprise when all 17 districts voting this week said “NO” in one loud voice.
The wording of the ballot question (which changed district by district) started with something like “Would you support allowing your school district to add .07 to the wage tax…..”
Many voters saw the words “add” and “tax” in the same sentence and said no thanks.
Indeed, there may well be merit in a plan to use income instead of property as a fairer means of paying for education, more equitably including renters and workers who live elsewhere.
But with no high wattage campaign, and no clear mandate for lowering property taxes as the income tax dollars were being raised, the voters were in no mood.
There was certainly some confusion, and some irritation that so important a question would be tucked into a quiet primary ballot with little fanfare.
Image isn’t everything, but it’s an important thing, in clearly defining ideas that will determine how our children are educated, and who gets to foot the bill.
HEY! We're getting an education trying to figure out the "Comments" section of this blog, and it's pretty taxing that it's still shut down.
If you want to add your assessment of the situation, write to me at scott.bremner@wsee.tv. Write "Comments" in the subject line so I won't miss it, and I'll lien your thoughts right after mine.