Kankakee Valley Post, Volume 12, Number 43, DeMotte, Jasper County, 4 September 1942 — PURPOSE OF $100 PER TEACHING UNIT ADVANCE [ARTICLE]

PURPOSE OF $100 PER TEACHING UNIT ADVANCE

An understanding that the additional SIOO per teaching unit of state funds to be distributed to public beginning next January ally for the purpose or reducing local taxes which otherwise would be paid and that the question of adjustments of teachers' salaries is a separate though co incidental issue was announced by the Indiana Tax Studv Committee. This committee, which is composed of representatives of twenty-eight farm, business, taxpayers’, and real estate organizations, issued through H. E. Schenck, president of the Indiana Farm Bureau, Inc., and committee chairman, the following statement: “It is the consensus of opinion of the Indiana Tax Studj Committee that the matter of teachers’ salaries and the matter of the action of the State

Finance Committee in raising the distribution of state tuition support from S7OO to SBOO per teaching unit, as interpret ed in resolutions adopted by the State Board of Education, are two separate and distinct issues. “It is further the unanimous opinion that any necessary adjustments in teachers* salaries should be made on the basis of merit and that such adjustments should be made where they are warranted. “It is the further consensus of opinion that the distribu-| tion of an extra SIOO per teaching unit is being made in accordance with the original intents of the Indiana Gross Income Tax Law; that such monies raised therefrom shall be used to supplant an equal amount of property tax and that the present balance in the State Treasury justifies this additional distribution. “It is unanimously agreed that anv action taken bv local school administrators should be in conformity with present budget laws and the law gov erning the time of the fixing of teachers’ salaries.” The issuance of this statement followed a detailed discussion of the subjects of teachers salaries, the additional distribution of state monev and local budget problems at the regular August meeting of the Tax Studv Committee. Much of the discussion centered around the cases of teachers who. in view of rising living costs, had received salary increases prior to the announcement of the boost in the distribution of state funds. It was agreed that in such cases, the increased distribution was not intended to serve as the basis for still another salarv increase, but was intended as a means of reducing local property taxes which otherwise would have to be increased to meet the added salary expenditures. It was further agreed that the increased distribution did not necessarily justify flat teacher salary increases of SIOO