🚀 go-pugleaf

"Tim May" <timcmay@removethis.got.net> wrote...
> As someone who recently paid $6500 in property taxes to the State of
> California, $24,400 in state income taxes, and $65,000 in Federal
> income taxes, (plus various utility, energy, gasoline, sales, etc.,
> taxes), I think I am taxed quite enough, thank you.
> 
> Further, property taxes, which are set by the state as a percentage of
> the assessed value, ARE SENT TO SACRAMENTO, then doled out for various
> purposes. 
> 
> Inviting local school districts to FURTHER tax us, given the bloated
> size of government already, and the kind of obscene tax levels
> mentioned above, is absurd.

But if the federal government ceased funding public schools the federal
income tax could be lowered, your local taxes increased, and the net
result might be about the same.


> Lastly, I think you were the one who said you just moved here from
> Texas. (If not, sorry.) You may not be aware of the "Lottery System."
> The California lottery was proposed as a way to fund the schools. This
> was how it was sold to the voters ("Our schools win, too!!," the ads
> gushed). I voted AGAINST it, not because I don't like the idea of a tax
> on stupidity--which is what lotteries are--but because it is never
> permissable for government to run an operation (gambling) which they
> outlaw when individuals do it.

Yeah, I'm the Texas dude.  Texas did the same thing, shortly before I
moved (back) there.  They sold the lottery as a way to provide extra
money for public education, then as soon as it was created the Texas
legislature cut state funding by about the same amount as the money
the new lottery was bringing in.  And like you said happens here in
California, there was something they called "Robin Hood" funding,
where local school district tax revenues over a certain set amount
were required to be sent to the state to redistribute communist-style
to poorer school districts.  So now they are trying to reform the
system, one idea being abolishing local school taxes and creating a
new statewide tax.  Also, by sending your money to Sacramento to
redistribute to local school districts, you lose your local voice
to determine how your local schools should be run.  Just like the
feds funding it.