Robbing schools to pay the Waltons

You would think it would be a good thing for a state -- especially a small Southern state -- to have the world's biggest company headquartered within its borders. But while Wal-Mart has certainly sparked some local economic development around its corporate offices in Bentonville, it also demands tax breaks and other concessions that negate the benefits of its presence in Arkansas.

In the latest example, Bentonville has voted to put valuable Walton property (including the site of a new Walton art museum) inside a three-square-mile Tax Increment Finance District. That means all property tax increases in that district for the next 25 years will be directed to the businesses inside the district instead of the schools for which the taxes were approved by voters in the first place.

The museum will get a parking deck and streets serving businesses will be improved -- all at the expense of education. Like other cities across the South, a concept that was intended to combat urban and rural blight (TIF) is being used as a gratutious business subsidy. Arkansas law allows any shortfalls in school funding that this TIF produces to be made up by taxes paid in the rest of the state. So the rich get richer.

It is probably unconstitutional to take minimum school millage to build streets and other infrastructure for the Waltons or anyone else. And it is probably unconstitutional to redirect money voted by the public for schools to build streets and infrastructure for the Waltons' or anyone else's private projects. Will a lawyer take this argument to the Supreme Court? Probably not one from Bentonville.