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Seeking opinions on what services people would give up for lower taxes, school sports, clubs, extracurricular activities, school taxes are large portion of bill
I don't know how it works on Long Island but from what I've read, school taxes are the largest part of your property tax bill. Since taxpayers have no control over the contracts that school districts negotiate with the teachers union, I would say that all the 'extras' that schools provide (sports teams, bands, choruses, clubs and other activities that aren't state-mandated) could be moved to a pay-as-you-go basis. In other words if a child wants to be on the football team, the child's parents get billed for their pro-rata cost of it. That cost would include whatever the teacher or coach is paid extra for, to run the team or club or band etc.
I don't know how it works on Long Island but from what I've read, school taxes are the largest part of your property tax bill. Since taxpayers have no control over the contracts that school districts negotiate with the teachers union, I would say that all the 'extras' that schools provide (sports teams, bands, choruses, clubs and other activities that aren't state-mandated) could be moved to a pay-as-you-go basis. In other words if a child wants to be on the football team, the child's parents get billed for their pro-rata cost of it. That cost would include whatever the teacher or coach is paid extra for, to run the team or club or band etc.
You don't believe that sports teams, bands, choruses, clubs, and other school sponsored activities are not important to the community and should, therefor, be paid for by the participants? This sounds like an incredibly narrow point of view. Are these items not part of a well rounded education? Is it better for the community to have the kids with nothing but time on their hands at the end of the school day?
A better way to keep the school taxes down is to have Albany pay for the things that it mandates. In fact, most school budgets are bloated by unfunded state mandates, not by the costs associated with sports and clubs.
I don't know how it works on Long Island but from what I've read, school taxes are the largest part of your property tax bill. Since taxpayers have no control over the contracts that school districts negotiate with the teachers union, I would say that all the 'extras' that schools provide (sports teams, bands, choruses, clubs and other activities that aren't state-mandated) could be moved to a pay-as-you-go basis. In other words if a child wants to be on the football team, the child's parents get billed for their pro-rata cost of it. That cost would include whatever the teacher or coach is paid extra for, to run the team or club or band etc.
This is a bad idea. This way, in order to save money, a relatively poorer child could opt out of all the activities that would give her/him a leg up at getting into a university. Universities rarely look only at academic performance; instead, they also look at performance in extracurriculars and other non-essential activities when giving entry and scholarships.
The United States is a meritocracy. We don't give, at least in theory, give privilege to anyone based upon ascribed qualities or titles. Except, this proposal would do just that. If you are rich, you get the spoils. Poorer people with gifts will leave them unpolished and unrealized because someone with money wanted to reduce his/her taxes.
Beyond that, this is just despicable on a social responsibility level, not to mention not the least bit Judeo-Christian.
Something that could help with taxes would be to create a NY Alcohol Beverage Control. In other words all booze, except beer and wine, is sold through the government with the money funneled back into the schools and services. I thought it was stupid until I worked on a big project for them and found out what a cash cow for the state they are.
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Revenue
As a major source of revenue for the Commonwealth and localities, ABC has contributed over a billion dollars to the Commonwealth in the last five years. Fiscal Year 2006 marked an eighth record-breaking year for ABC, resulting in over $280 million in contributions to the Commonwealth's General Fund, state agencies and to localities for education, police, fire, public works and other projects.
How about getting rid of all those useless town and county jobs? do we really need 5 guys to fill a pot hole ? 1 to work while 4 others flag and drink coffee? and when it rains they sit in a truck and suck up our money. how about making most of them seasonal? do we really need mosquito sprayers in the winter? Do we paint lines on the roads in the winter? snow plowers can be on call . for extra cash. We can use prisoners to do alot of outdoor work, not violent ones of course. Alot of states do this, heck we pay for there room and board why not make them work instead of lifting wieghts all day. We could eliminate all the perks with those jobs. All of those retirement packages we pay for. There is alot of money to be saved. I know we have alot of teachers on this board and they deserve what they get but lets face it they say they are under paid but they do not work as much as the normal person for there money. Where can any of us get off in the summer and all of those holidays and vacations. and still make that kinda money? avg teacher salary is what? lets say 50gs at only 9 months of work and that is an estimate, I am sure it is less. tack on another 3 months of pay , what is that another 15 to 18 gs.for a full year of work. some teachers get 100k where I am, thats pretty darn good for the time they work. And do not give me the you bring work home and grade paper crap, alot of you have the kids grade them in class. besides that, do you think you are the only ones that do work at home? We should have the teachers working all summer for there money , not give them off. 50gs work all year like the rest of us. We could have them spray mosquitos and fill pot holes and all the summer work we pay those other loafers to do. This way we get rid of them and get our full monies worth from the teachers. Big Big savings. either that or we all should have off for the summer and christmas, spring, winter and easter and all the rest and get our same pay, sounds good to me. what about you guys?
Are you really suggesting that teachers "spray mosquitos and fill potholes"? I'm not sure that people, like many teachers I know, go school to earn their bachelor's degree and two masters degrees to fill potholes. I know you're venting, but this is just ridiculous.
Why are they to "good" for that? then maybe they should be teaching all summer . Free classes to people so they can advance in life. Why not work all year for the money? and then us people paying them can get some schooling , that will help us out. or does the thought of that turn off would be teachers? Imagine working all year, ooooooo makes my skin crawl. I know alot of young people that are becoming teachers and that is one of the top reasons for wanting that job. To have all that time off. and still get paid the same.
Why are they to "good" for that? then maybe they should be teaching all summer . Free classes to people so they can advance in life. Why not work all year for the money? and then us people paying them can get some schooling , that will help us out. or does the thought of that turn off would be teachers? Imagine working all year, ooooooo makes my skin crawl. I know alot of young people that are becoming teachers and that is one of the top reasons for wanting that job. To have all that time off. and still get paid the same.
I'm not saying that they are "too good for that". I'm not sure that any professional person wants to "spray mosiquotos" for a living.
I guess the time off is one of the perks that makes the job desirable. I find it silly that people love to dump on teachers and police salaries. If we were to lower salaries and make working conditions harsher for these vital positions, we would not get the same quality of employee. Then, when our kids are uneducated and our streets are unprotected, who will we have to blame?
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I disagree
