Raise taxes, dammit
I recently posted about a comment made by a woman who happened to be riding the same shuttle as I. Actually, she made two memorable comments during the ride. When I got in, the passengers were discussing about how much the area has changed in the last 5 years. Since I've lived here about 20 years, I volunteered a few observations on how much change I have witnessed. Then we got into the standard discussion about the housing growth, where everyone could possibly be working, and the general conclusion that most of the growth is from retirees.
Then she made the oddest statement. Completely out of the blue, she said, "Well, one thing is for sure: they need to raise taxes to improve the schools." It struck me as odd because no reference was made to how the money is currently spent, how it could be spent better, how much is being spent, whether the schools are actually doing a good or bad job, social factors (including economic factors and the effect of immigrants), whether taxes wasted in a number of other ways could be redirected to schools, whether recent retirees buying big houses were already a net tax revenue increase (no kids, high property tax), etc. Just, "raise taxes."
I'm not the only one driven to insanity by such ignorance: guest blogger Jason Scorse of the Environmental Economics blog also has the reaction, as he discusses in this thought-provoking post.
My next suggestion is to use the unused 25% of the school. For 3 months out of the year, incredibly expensive buildings sit unused. Start year-round schooling, allow parents to opt their kids out (or not) of certain quarters by lottery. Some (me) would prefer to travel in the Spring, some would prefer the traditional Summer break, some (me again) might like to travel to New England in the Fall, and some might like to take up skiing during Winter break. I can't wait until the biannual request for more money because they are overcrowded. They could also rent the place out in the evenings for adult classes and make money that way.
And have I mentioned that a cheerleader carwash is always popular?
* The same people who want taxes raised without reference to anything usually refer to farms and other such spaces as "green space", "wetlands", or "our land" because "our food" is grown on it. As we all know, farmland is becoming rarer because of capitalistic greed, so we need local governments to prevent "sprawl". Unless those same local governments are building useful and necessary things like tennis courts for the people, even though the people foolishly voted against it.
Then she made the oddest statement. Completely out of the blue, she said, "Well, one thing is for sure: they need to raise taxes to improve the schools." It struck me as odd because no reference was made to how the money is currently spent, how it could be spent better, how much is being spent, whether the schools are actually doing a good or bad job, social factors (including economic factors and the effect of immigrants), whether taxes wasted in a number of other ways could be redirected to schools, whether recent retirees buying big houses were already a net tax revenue increase (no kids, high property tax), etc. Just, "raise taxes."
I'm not the only one driven to insanity by such ignorance: guest blogger Jason Scorse of the Environmental Economics blog also has the reaction, as he discusses in this thought-provoking post.
For those who generally lean towards the Democrats (such as myself) the nagging feeling that they have truly have become an odd assortment of special interests groups without a clear unifying message is extremely troublesome. The “we need more money for programs X ,Y, and Z” without any assessment of how well the programs are working or how they could be improved is also problematic, and so is the complete lack of courage on the social issues front.A few years ago, the school board asked the citizens whether they would pay for a new sports facility because they didn't want to pay to rent the university's facilities on game night any longer. It was defeated 2:1. Then the school board miraculously found the money languishing around in a rarely visited portion of the budget (the basement, I assume). They bought a local farm* and constructed a monument to the central tenet of modern high schooling: a football stadium. So my first suggestion is to sell off that land, and to let people who want to play football do it the way Little Leaguers and soccer players do it: join a league, pay your own way, and realize about $100k per school in equipment, staff, groundskeeping, and lost tax revenues.
My next suggestion is to use the unused 25% of the school. For 3 months out of the year, incredibly expensive buildings sit unused. Start year-round schooling, allow parents to opt their kids out (or not) of certain quarters by lottery. Some (me) would prefer to travel in the Spring, some would prefer the traditional Summer break, some (me again) might like to travel to New England in the Fall, and some might like to take up skiing during Winter break. I can't wait until the biannual request for more money because they are overcrowded. They could also rent the place out in the evenings for adult classes and make money that way.
And have I mentioned that a cheerleader carwash is always popular?
* The same people who want taxes raised without reference to anything usually refer to farms and other such spaces as "green space", "wetlands", or "our land" because "our food" is grown on it. As we all know, farmland is becoming rarer because of capitalistic greed, so we need local governments to prevent "sprawl". Unless those same local governments are building useful and necessary things like tennis courts for the people, even though the people foolishly voted against it.
Labels: politics
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