AK wrote:

- quote -

I agree that teachers' unions (and their PAC money) pose
problems. However, I'm not sure how ~freely~ school
districts were able to reward or punish teachers in the
unions' absence. I would expect some form of "civil
services" rules to nevertheless apply, and rules of that
type typically reward seniority over competence.

Still, as a taxpayer, I wouldn't mind seeing unions for
government workers abolished.

MTW

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- quote -

As the person who posted this has the same initials as I do,
I am merely responding to say that AK[at]aol.com is not one of
my aliases. My posts will always come from
glendale202-mtm[at]yahoo.com or if I am away,
tempuser[at]vacationmail.com.

--
Alan
http://taxtopics.net

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"Dick Adams" <rdadams[at]smart.net> wrote:
... . . .
- quote -

There is also a problem in the schools that was not a
problem in most schools some 40 years ago. That's the
quality of the teachers. I remember (mostly) dedicated and
hard working teachers. Two things have changed that. Back
then, almost all of the teachers were well educated and
motivated women. They had very limited job opportunities
outside of teaching. So the primary and secondary school
systems had a large pool of qualified applicants, even
though the pay was not that good. Now college educated women
have pretty much the same opportunities as men for higher
paying jobs in industry, so the caliber of the educator
selection pool is not as high. It all relates back to the
Peter Principle, where people are promoted to their level of
incompetence - except in situations where competent people
are held back by discrimination. The second thing hurting
the quality of our educators is the advent of teachers'
unions. No longer can hard work be rewarded with a higher
raise than another teacher gets, and no longer can a clearly
incompetent teacher be fired. So while teaching is
relatively paying much better today than it used to, the
quality of the teachers has sunk. So it is irksome to be
paying more for schools that are providing poor results.
Sure, everyone should be paying the cost burden of educating
our young people, but we also have a right to expect
reasonable value for the money spent. It's sad that private
schools seem to be the solution to the education problem.

ak

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"Gene E. Utterback, EA" <eagent[at]alliancetax.com> wrote:
- quote -

Great Answer! Thanks Gene!

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"Phoebe Roberts, EA" <phoebe[at]cottagesoft.com> wrote:
- quote -

Hi Phoebe,

I absolutely support paying property taxes to help support
schools. However, I have received this question

- quote -

from some of my single students and I wanted to obtain a
difinitive answer from professionals such as yourself as to
why everyone pays for schools with their property taxes.

Thank you again for your great answer!!

-Casey

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"Gene E. Utterback, EA" <eagent[at]alliancetax.com> wrote:
- quote -

This is an excellent answer and consistent Gene's ability to
cut to the heart of problems in plain English.

And now I will replace Gene on the soap box!!

There are serious problems with the existing system. Across
every State in the Union there are significant disparities
in property values by counties and thus property taxes to
fund education in each county vary. Close to 20 years ago
West Virginia decided to pool state-wide property taxes so
there would be equal funding to every school in the State.
Sounded like a great idea to me. Anyone know how that has
worked out.

In my political persuasion, we believe that problems are not
solved by throwing money at them, but rather by recruiting
leadership to solve them. Unfortunately you need to have
the funds to hire leadership. And where leadership is most
needed are schools with the least amount of property taxes.

Another problem is that 40+ years ago when I graduated from
high school you could make a decent living with a high school
diploma. That's all property taxes paid for then and that's
all property taxes pay for now. Something is not right!!

Dick

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A wrote:

- quote -

Let's be "fair" now. "..... prisons that are filled with
mostly poor, uneducated men AND WOMEN."

ChEAr$,
Harlan Lunsford
Tue, 2 Nov 2004 08:51:50

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"Casey Boyles" <casey[at]NO.SPAM.satx.rr.com> wrote:

- quote -

Thank you all for such great answers and insight!

Cheers,
Casey

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"Casey Boyles" <casey[at]NO.SPAM.satx.rr.com> wrote:

- quote -

GREAT Question!! It gives me an opportunity to jump up on
my soap box, though just for a moment.

Most of the taxing that happens in this country is NOT about
raising revenue, it is about social, political and economic
engineering. You get to deduct your mortgage interest
because it is good for the construction industry, you get to
deduct charitable contributions because it means the
government will have to provide less help - at least in
theory.

For school taxes, the theory goes like this - you can either
pay for education or welfare. Since most social policies
reflect the principle that it is better to teach a man to
fish than to give a man a fish, the default option is almost
always for education in the hopes that education will make
the recipients better (tax-paying) citizens.

Gene E. Utterback, EA

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Casey Boyles wrote:

- quote -

The same reason that people who aren't on welfare this year
still pay income taxes that fund the welfare system, people
who aren't collecting Social Security yet pay FICA/SECA
taxes, people who don't use the courts in a given year pay
taxes that cover judges' salaries. That's the way taxes
work - everyone pays, whether you get a specific
identifiable benefit or not.

If you don't like supporting schools with your tax money,
you might consider moving to a jurisdiction that has lower
property taxes.

Phoebe

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"Casey Boyles" <casey[at]NO.SPAM.satx.rr.com> wrote:

- quote -

Because most thinking people realize that education benefits
society as a whole, not specific families. If not spent on
education, your tax dollars will be spent on prisons that
are filled with mostly poor, uneducated men.

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Casey Boyles wrote:

- quote -

Real property taxes have always applied to all taxpayers.
When the value of your property increases because your local
schools are so good that folks are flocking to buy homes in
your subdivision are you going to refuse the increase in the
market value of you home when you sell?

--
Frederick E. Jorden http://Tax-Accounting-Payroll.com
7825 Midlothian Tpk - 207 Richmond, VA 23235-5247
EMAIL knowtax[at]bigfoot.com
(804) 320-6210 FAX (804) 320-6211

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"Casey Boyles" <casey[at]NO.SPAM.satx.rr.com> writes:

- quote -

For the same reason why

- people who don't drive pay taxes to support highway construction
- people who don't take public transportation pay taxes to support it
- people who don't get mugged pay taxes to pay for law enforcement

and on and on.

Phil Marti
Clarksburg, MD

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- quote -

Basically, 'caus 'tis the law!!!- Your education was
provided by others who, when/if you were going through the
system, did not have children.

"Jack" - John H. Fisher - TaxService[at]aol.com
Philadelphia, Pa - Atlantic City, NJ - West Wildwood, NJ
My Newsgroups & Boards at: http://members.aol.com/TaxService/index.html

Where Ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise!=

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- quote -

They don't everywhere. I live in Georgia and although it is
county-by-county, some counties have exemptions from school
taxes for older people. In my county it is that way. Then
again, the representative who introduced the bill is from
this county. <G
Carol
My mind not only wanders, sometimes it leaves completely.

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- quote -

It is not only the children or their parents who benefit
from public education. We all benefit from having an
educated populace. The public education system gives
everyone the opportunity to get at least a basic education,
even if they could not afford it on their own. This makes it
possible for everyone to be productive and contribute to
society to the best of his or her ability, even if not from
a well-to-do family. This is one of the things that makes us
a productive and powerful nation.

Bob Sandler

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Casey Boyles wrote:

- quote -

From the beginning our government believed that education
was very important. So important, it was thought, that
education should be available for everyone, not just those
who could afford it.

To provide universal education requires everyone to share
the burden. If education were paid for only by the property
taxes of those who have children in schools, it would be no
different from telling kids that they could only go to
school if their parents could afford it.

Stu

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"Casey Boyles" <casey[at]NO.SPAM.satx.rr.com> wrote:

- quote -

In the area where I reside, when you reach certain ages, you
no longer have to pay school tax. You should check with
your tax assessor's office and see if you can get some kind
of homestead exemption that would save you money on this
property tax.

Wayne Brasch, CPA, M. S. Taxation

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I have a property tax quetion for you all.

Why do home owners without children pay school taxes opposed
to homeowners with children shouldering the whole burden?
Has the tax law always been structured like this? Any
information you can provide specific to Texas would be
extremely helpful!

Thank You!
Casey

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