I'm pissed, a referundum passed raising my property taxes $500.00 a year

[madmunchie]

so that our schools can get more funding. Driving by one of the schools affected by this was a large banner thanking us for passing this referendum with all of the students signatures on it. I truthfully had mixed feelings when I saw that sign.

Our state has a lotto that is supposed to have ADDED to the school funding (which of course it didn't), we have gambling boats in the state, high sales taxes, high property taxes, high income taxes, phenomenal commercial growth in the last 3 years or so and oh, yeah, the tollways that are forcing us to buy I-passes or pay double the amount in tolls. We have crooks running this state. I don't know why we have to pay another $500.00 when there should be plenty of money for the schools. All this has done is to give the politicians more money to line their pockets with.

I am so sick of all of this bullshit. Am I wrong?

[Jersey Devil]

1. Part right, part wrong

Property taxes to fund schools is regressive. I think they should be funded by a progressive income tax so that people on fixed incomes such as the retired and elderly don't have to continue to sacrifice.

On the other hand, money put into your local schools will make your community more attractive to home buyers, enhancing the value of your property.

[madmunchie]

3. My point is that there are many pots for the funds to come from

in this state. They aren't using the money the way that they are supposed to be using the money to being with. Wwe just in effect gave them another pot in which to line their pockets.

[mdmc]

2. cheer up! maybe bush will give you a tax cut or something

to even it out.

$500.00 is a pretty big hike. Is those children learning?

[The Straight Story]

4. No, I agree with you really

Problem is the more we give the more people want as they get more and more comfortable with bigger budgets.

Schools and other govt entities can do more with less but choose not to - and of course they lie most the time about where taxes from X will go (like cigarette taxes being used for things never intended).

Goverment wants a regular pay raise, which outstrips ours often. We can do better with less taxation if we got rid of the pork and people in power really focused on how best to use that money for us and the people getting it spent it as intelligently as they could.

I am not a big tax and spender but I do obviously believe we need to tax and spend, just not at the insane levels things are getting to.

[donco6]

9. WTF?

"Schools and other govt entities can do more with less but choose not to - and of course they lie most the time about where taxes from X will go (like cigarette taxes being used for things never intended)."

What? Let me tell you pal, that for the last 10 years, we've BEEN doing more with less, and THAT in the face of more and more mandates that are handed down with no more funding attached.

Take special education, just for starters. Did you know that we are reimbursed at about 17% of our actual special ed costs? And that the reason we wrack up so much expense is because we HAVE to provide the services under federal law?

And then we can talk about NCLB. Did you know that here in Colorado, we've just been required to administer yet another test - this one to our Spanish-speaking students - that will have to be administered to each kid PERSONALLY by a Spanish-speaking teacher, at 20 a pop? And I'm in a district with THOUSANDS of Lau kids? Again, no funding attached.

And then there's technology. The state demands that all of our kids be technologically literate, but gives us no money for technology. We do get some from e-rate, but that only offsets a portion of the internet access - the cost of which is also far outstripping our inflation increases.

And to top it off, you accuse me of LYING about what we're doing with our override money. I have to prove 15 ways to Sunday that we spent that money on EXACTLY what we voted for. I have to track every single expenditure to the PENNY. God that accusation infuriates me!

I have to take a breather before I say something I'll regret.

[The Straight Story]

11. I am happy your situation is different than others

Like here in Columbus where they sink a lot of money into schools which they close in the next year or two (like a recent 100k play ground last year and this year they are closing the school).

And as I stated, the government is the problem - if they have mandates they should fund them - and they can do that by cutting pork and insane spending on iraq war.

Government can cut costs, as we all do, while still having good service - but the govt wastes more money than anyone I know of.

The problem is how the government does things (in some cases) - it is just not efficient and can be, as you noted, burdensome. Why is your school suffering while billions of tax dollars are wasted elsewhere? Raising taxes is not the answer, redoing our priorities is. But as long as they can suck us dry they have no need to streamline.

If your school system is not wasting a penny, good for them. But that does not mean the government itself is not doing so which means you suffer and the tax payers suffer because they keep wanting more to fund more, and then they piss around with the money.

Columbus is not an isolated case either, just google schools wasting tax dollars, then do govt wasting tax dollars, and what we see is a big picture of our money being wasted due to poor management.

[Rainscents]

5. What state?

[donco6]

6. I take it, it was an override election for your district.

And not an increase statewide? This is fairly common.

You wrote:

Our state has a lotto that is supposed to have ADDED to the school funding (which of course it didn't),

(so, you're not blaming the schools for that, right?)

we have gambling boats in the state,

(does any gambling revenue go to schools? Most states don't funnel gambling revenue to education)

high sales taxes,

(almost no state funds education with sales tax)

high property taxes,

(what is your mill levy from the school on your tax statement? How many mills are levied by the school? What's your assessed value and assessment ratio on your property? I'm curious how it compares nationally)

high income taxes,

(what's your income tax rate?)

phenomenal commercial growth in the last 3 years or so

(this doesn't usually help schools that much. In fact, if population is growing, it can cause school crowding, which leads to levy elections to build new schools)

and oh, yeah, the tollways that are forcing us to buy I-passes or pay double the amount in tolls.

(?? Sorry, but I don't see what this has to do with schools?)

We have crooks running this state. I don't know why we have to pay another $500.00 when there should be plenty of money for the schools. All this has done is to give the politicians more money to line their pockets with.

(It's good to direct your anger at the appropriate place - the crooks. But don't take it out on your school, unless you really know they are the crooks.)

[proud2BlibKansan]

10. MO funnels gambling $$ into education

So do several other states. One southern state (I think GA?) uses gambling money to fund early childhood education statewide.

I oppose this simply because then voters assume schools will need no more tax money and they get upset (as this poster did) when their taxes are raised to support education.

[madmunchie]

13. The point is that there are plenty of sources of revenue in our state

that go above and beyond the levels of other states. We also have revenue producing things that some of the other states do not have. So to my way of thinking, we should have the best in everything, which of course we do not.

The money is not being spent wisely and allocated correctly. My property taxes directly affect the schools, which are high to begin with. Developers are coming into our area and building homes like crazy but aren't putting in parks, contributing any extra to the schools...No, we are having to pay more on our already high property taxes for them.

As far as the tollways goes, it is just another source of recently doubled revenues on a road system that was only supposed to be charging for tolls until the new roads were paid for. Guess what, they have been paid for for years. So since the original purpose for the tolls has been served, then why do we still pay tolls and where is that money going?

All of the money from all of the revenue sources in this state and they cannot figure out how to make sure our school systems can stay well funded? I don't believe it.

[Danieljay]

7. This should make you feel better:

http://nationalpriorities.org/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=182

[proud2BlibKansan]

8. The gambling dollars are just a small drop in a large bucket

It is so dishonest of states to push gambling at voters by saying the profits will go to education. No way can the gambling industry support education.

[madmunchie]

12. We don't expect it to pay for education, but to ADD to the budget

that is the problem, they took the money out of the general fund and put the gambling funds in to bring the level back to the original.