You’d think the Legislature has enough new bad ideas that they don’t need to recycle oldies.

But that’s what lawmakers appear to be doing with House Bill 1537, a revival of a failed 2018 effort led by the teachers union to have the state pay teachers more by hijacking a share of property taxes, now assigned by the state Constitution exclusively to counties.

The new measure, already approved by the House Education Committee, targets taxes from upscale residential investment properties.

It’s well-meaning but ill-advised; if the state wants more money for teachers and education, there are state taxes to tap — income, excise or hotel.

By homing in on the property tax, lawmakers get the political gain of pleasing school unions while putting the fiscal pain on the counties, which have no other independent income source.

Arguments that property taxes routinely pay for public education on the mainland are bogus. Counties actually run the schools on the mainland, while Hawaii has a state-run school system that should be paid for with state taxes the Legislature is accountable for.

A similar effort in 2018 failed when the state Supreme Court struck from the ballot the Legislature’s proposed constitutional amendment to extend property tax rights to the state, ruling the wording was too vague.

If the court hadn’t killed it, voters would have. The ruling came too late to change the ballot, and even though votes didn’t count, more than 340,000 voters expressed displeasure with the idea by voting against it 60% to 26%.

Sponsors this year hope to reverse public opinion by deploying super PAC propaganda.

The new bill attempts to address the Supreme Court’s objections by specifying the tax would apply to residential investment properties worth $3 million or more, but the language is still unclear on how the money would be raised or spent, leaving specifics to a future Legislature.

Lawmakers say the tax is aimed at outside investors, but the language doesn’t guarantee local homeowners or renters wouldn’t end up bearing weight. Nor does it assure legislators wouldn’t use the new money to reduce existing general funds for education, potentially resulting in no net increase in school spending.

The gambit fails to weigh other priorities for limited tax dollars and severely constrains the counties’ ability to use the property tax — their main funding source — for their own pressing needs.

Slapping higher taxes on wealthy outside speculators is certainly worth strong consideration, but the counties should make the call and not be big-footed by the state.

Shame on the counties for not seeing another state raid coming after the 2018 battle and failing to leave the state nothing to swipe by making their own plans to tax high-end investment properties.

For instance, the counties keep talking about curbing outside speculation that drives up local housing prices and finding ways to reduce housing costs sending locals to the mainland.

Why not further both by heavily taxing the upscale investment properties to diminish their appeal, and using the new revenue to reduce property taxes on struggling local owner-occupants and affordable-rental providers?

Reach David Shapiro at volcanicash@gmail.com.