Thursday, March 20, 2008

Update on Sucker Born Every Minute

Many school districts across the state are using the mandated state property tax cuts as cover for massive school bond packages. The interesting thing is that these districts are trying to convince you that they are lowering your tax rates. In many school districts tax payers are being told that approving the maximum tax rate would result in a lower rate than last year's. Don't be a sucker!

Informed people know that the legislature gave school districts enough money this past year to cut property tax rates by 33 cents. Deception and misleading the property tax payers should not be tolerated! Don't let your school district pilfer your tax cut. Don't let them convince you that they are actually providing you a tax cut. If you are a business owner make sure you understand what you will be paying under the new gross receipts franchise tax structure that was put in place to offset local property tax cuts. Don't vote to put yourself out of business!

Here is another argument being used. "It is for the children." Make no mistake this is not for the children. The children could care less about the structure. Another argument being made is that it will enhance our community economically. There is absolute no data to support this argument. From an economic standpoint it is better to have a school based upon student results and absolutely has not one thing to do with the physical structures. The product being produced (educated students) carries the weight. My family has relocated three times and the actual structures never played a part in our decision making process. The results of student achievement was the key to our decision. Truth be told added taxes have caused more harm in a small community like ours due to the tax base shrinking from the added tax burden. Many companies will not move into a community where there is a high tax burden. The community with the smaller tax burden will win every time.

In to the wild blue yonder.................................................

2 comments:

txnotax said...

Wild Blue:

You are absolutely correct, of course, but you are "preaching to the choir," as they say.

How do we get your message out to the citizens of Camp County and just as important, how do we get them to vote in their own interest? Ever notice how the Shool Board members manage to remain in their positions year after year after year?

People can only be suckers if they choose to be, and we certainly have that trend in Camp County. Talk about a "rubber stamp" community! Will the May 10 election on the school bond be another example of this? A lot of people around here think so.

Anonymous said...

Wild Blue:

You are totally wrong.
The citizens of Pittsburg and Camp County know that.

One big thing you said also, it is not for the kids, they could care less. Why in the world would you say something like that? It is all about the kids, they know it. My son and all of his friends are excitied about this and they came to me the other day and said, hey ill be a freshman when the schools built, im so excited! And another thing about teachers coming here for money. Let me ask you what do you do or have done for a living? Compare that to what a teacher makes. All teachers know that when they go into the teaching field it is not about the money, it is about our kids. Why would they want to come to a school district to teach if they did not have the reasourses to do so?