Delaying until tomorrow ...

Faced with overwhelming opposition to its original proposal to raise property taxes by 40 percent, the Jordan School District has instead raised it by only 20 percent — a staggering amount in its own right.

But the school board's decision, made official Tuesday night, hardly solves the new district's looming problems. Rather, it could make solving those problems more difficult in the future. The board reduced the size of the tax hike by taking $21 million from its reserves. Because reserves function as a savings account, this would be the equivalent of a person breaking open a piggy bank to pay monthly expenses. When the next month rolls around, that person will face those same expenses without the luxury of a piggy bank.

In addition, a raid on the reserves is likely to hurt the district's bond rating, which would make borrowing more expensive to taxpayers in the future.

And yet it's unfair to blame the Jordan Board alone. The state Legislature created this mess when it passed a law allowing people to petition and vote to form new school districts as small as the boundaries of a city. Lawmakers didn't tackle any of the more important issues, such as how the new district would split assets and debt obligations with what is left over of the old one, or how to help a district that might get stuck with obligations it can't meet.

When the east side of the Jordan District voted to split off and form the Canyons District, the two sides struggled with these issues. State lawmakers then passed a law requiring other districts in Salt Lake County to send money to the new Jordan District to equalize the money available for capital needs. That money can't be used for operational costs, however, which is where the problem lies.

Jordan Superintendent Barry Newbold has volunteered to return 10 percent of his $237,000 annual salary — a symbolic gesture that hardly makes a dent in the problem. The district already has lost 180 people due to layoffs and attrition. No educational programs have been cut, and no teachers have been laid off.

And yet it is clear that more cuts must be made.

It is interesting to compare the angry people who filled a recent public hearing on this matter with the angry people who have attended recent town-hall meetings on health-care reform nationwide. In both cases, many people spoke without a full grasp of the situation and with the luxury of not having to actually make the tough decisions. And yet in both cases, people spoke out of a legitimate sense of concern about looming decisions that are going to affect them personally and deeply.

In this case, a 40 percent tax hike was simply an unreasonable answer to the Jordan District's problems. And yet taxpayers must understand that, in these hard times, they simply can't expect to continue current class sizes and program levels without some pain.

The Jordan District has put off a good bit of that pain for awhile, but the day of reckoning will come. The board can't please all people. Perhaps it can't even please any people. But it must start now to decide the choices it will make for the health of the district one year from now.