All You People Leaving Upstate NY Read This ... (Buffalo, Union: taxes, live)

[shibainu]

Originally Posted by itSmellsBAD

The biggest MYTH about NY is that "high taxes mean great schools". BULL!
High taxes mean HIGH PAID TEACHERS with lifetime health insurance and cosmetic surgeyr benefits that move away once they retire to live in FLORIDA.

Health care is rotten around here. That's what happens when the hospitals are inundated with welfare cases who have no jobs and are too lazy to relocate because NY is a welfarite DREAM.

They are actually not the highest. I believe it is NJ. I will look it up. The state needs to get rid of having a masters degree to teach. Some of the best states in america do not require a masters degree.

[iloveupstateny]

Originally Posted by itSmellsBAD

The biggest MYTH about NY is that "high taxes mean great schools". BULL!
High taxes mean HIGH PAID TEACHERS with lifetime health insurance and cosmetic surgeyr benefits that move away once they retire to live in FLORIDA.

Health care is rotten around here. That's what happens when the hospitals are inundated with welfare cases who have no jobs and are too lazy to relocate because NY is a welfarite DREAM.

Retirement benefits for retired teachers is dependent by district. My family members pay close to 1k per month for their insurance while their neighbor who was a janitor at Kodak pays about $250 per month.

But it is true, a lot more with downstate NY teachers, that they relocate to much more affluent areas in other areas because they have made so much in their retirement plans. Can't blame them. I'd rather have it be the teachers than backwards politicians or greedy corporate freakazoids.

[iloveupstateny]

Originally Posted by shibainu

They are actually not the highest. I believe it is NJ. I will look it up. The state needs to get rid of having a masters degree to teach. Some of the best states in america do not require a masters degree.

This says NY is 6th in the Nation.

AFT - Press Center - Press Releases - 2004 Teacher Salary Survey Map

[HomerBrink]

According to a recent study by Education Week (just released last week), NYS's public schools rank second in the nation after Massachusetts.

[itSmellsBAD]

You know what's funny? Almost ALL the teachers in my school district have thier own children attending PRIVATE SCHOOLS. I wish there were stats available for this. In WNY, Frontier School District in Hamburg, hardly the ghetto, is known as "Heroin High" due to the large number of junky students. Many of them girls. Very high paid teachers at Heroin High send thier own kids to Catholic school. FACT.

[shibainu]

Originally Posted by HomerBrink

According to a recent study by Education Week (just released last week), NYS's public schools rank second in the nation after Massachusetts.

The teacher’s association and our government do not rank them that high. Do you have a link I liked to see the top ten.

[HomerBrink]

The report i"m talking about is here.
http://www.edweek.org/media/ew/qc/2008/18shr.ny.h27.pdf. I stand partially corrected. It's mixed bag for NYS some As and C. My reference to the study was through the Washington Post which said New York was ranked second after Massachusetts but I think they meant NJ (no small typo!). However NYS is 13 in a list in the report. Interesting most of the bottom 10 are sunbelt states (Oh, blasphemy)
Have fun with it.

[smalltownusa]

Originally Posted by itSmellsBAD

Everyone knows that The Peoples Republic of Kalifornia is a mess almost as bad as NY. There are 49 other states to consider moving to other than the PRK.

Traffic is the only good thing about living in Western NY. There is none as the road system was built around Buffalo to handle twice the population that is left here. It's a pleasure driving here as there really are no traffic jams anymore due to the huge population decline.

OMG you can take a sunny day and make it ugly.....geesshhhhhhhh..someone is actially sticking up for the positives we who live here are aware of and smells knocks them out of the running......again....remind me to bypass his/her posts pleaseeeeeeeee.....the negativity is so mind-sappingly tiring....

[inpd]

Originally Posted by smalltownusa

OMG you can take a sunny day and make it ugly.....geesshhhhhhhh..someone is actially sticking up for the positives we who live here are aware of and smells knocks them out of the running......again....remind me to bypass his/her posts pleaseeeeeeeee.....the negativity is so mind-sappingly tiring....

Agreed. I started this thread to point out Upstate NY has its benefits. It's not
for everyone but its not that bad. Instead it got hijacked by various complaints
from teachers, taxes etc.

I think these negative posters are hillarious. They make broad complaints that *everyone* is
leaving NY because of taxes, schools etc, there are no jobs except government
ones. Have they ever thought, that there
part of the problem as well? Anyone reading this group will think the NY state
is for losers or filled with complainers all the time. What's wrong with
admitting upstate NY is a nice enough place and has benefits over CA?

I also don't get this pre-occupation with comparing NY taxes with CA taxes.
Of course NY taxes are higher. Living in the NE is tough during the winter, you
need huge amounts of resources to clear snow, fix up roads due to the
freeze/thaw cycles etc. CA has none of that except for in the Sierra's and
even then they mandate you need chains on your car or you don't get to
drive.

[homeward bound]

Smalltownusa--watch out!

Warmth--can turn into a nap!
Cold--can turn into snow!
Or warmth!
Winter--can turn into Spring!
Leaves--can turn into soil!
DIRT! It's dirty!
Community = constriction!
Privacy = isolation!
Puppies--have teeth!
Smalltown USA--can turn into China!
When you say "Be balanced," you're trying to cheat me of my raging love of feeling cheated!

My grandmother had a saying for people like this: "If I could walk on water he'd say I was stepping on HIS fish."

And this animosity toward NYS teachers--wow. I'm not saying that, in some districts, their benefits may not be excessive. Or that, in many places in NY, school taxes aren't burdensome. But ALL New York State teachers are grossly overpaid, oversubsidized leeches? And EVERYwhere in NYS has crushing property taxes--that are always and only wasted, by conspiracy?

What bitter pretzels: If, as claimed, NYS teachers always take their wildly lavish retirement benefits out of state, then why complain, as claimed, that they're not taxed by NYS on their pension payouts--since, as claimed, they're not even there in NYS to begin with, and by that fact alone, CAN'T be taxed by NYS?

I especially love the iron-sure-stats-out-of-the-angry-hat approach: "Almost ALL the teachers in my school district have thier own children attending PRIVATE SCHOOLS. I wish there were stats available for this." Hmm. I can't prove whether it is true, but since I declare it, it's true, necessarily, and I wish it were provable, too!

And Buffalo--wow again. That's a very good description of Iraq. With, of course, 62 feet of (toxic) snow added on top. Why, right now, EVERYONE in Buffalo is always and only getting laid off AND mugged at the same moment! In a pothole! Lake Erie is looking at me funny!

So, clearly....

TEACHERS MAKE IT SNOW.

Here, let me play teacher a moment.
Today, class, let's try a BALANCED PERSPECTIVE. Even in Buffalo, even in 2008, even in winter--there's GOT to be something about living, even there now, that makes life well WORTH living, no?

P.S. "From balance comes credibility."

P.P.S. A teacher taught me that.