[pablo-me]

Just got my 2007 real Estate Tax Statement for my $135,000 home.
$2,625!!!!!ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME?

Come June, if you see a car heading westbound on I-80 and the driver has his arm hanging out giving the finger to no one imparticular .....that'll be me saying thanks for four truly mediocre years in your fine city.

$1,400 of the above total goes to schools...sure glad I can gave my neighbors children an education....dispite they're Mexican Nationals who don't speak english, drive unregistered cars and don't work.

Buh-Bye

[mattpoulsen]

Yeah, well if you had kids your neighbor would be paying for you kids' education. Its called living in society. Not to mention my great great grandfather spoke German at home with this parents...he learned English by going to school.

Further, how much do you think your mortgage payment would for that same house if you lived on the west coast...or east coast?? The point is, as a whole, you're still paying a lot lot less to live in Omaha...even if the property tax rate is higher.

[kosnebbear]

Yeah Matt, but at least your great great grandfather learned to speak English which you seem to be speaking and writing today as well. Today we have to pay teachers to teach the students in their first language, which is not English and they have the opition to learn English in today's society controlled schools.

Guess learning English in school is no longer something that about 300 million Americans feels is no longer needed in today's society just like today's society feels it is okay to only follow those laws that you want to and we can just forget all about the rest. Well the last poll that I saw said just the opposite. Most Americans want anyone coming to America to learn to speak, write and read English as we speak it in America, they want them to become a part of America by learning about and respecting our countries traditions and customs that we have had for a few hundred years. They also want them to respect all of our laws and not just some of them, which means get your driver's license, register you vehicle and carry insurance.

pablo-me you think your taxes are bad, my home is valued at a little over $100,000 and our taxes are well over $2,000.00 per year as well and we live outside of Omaha in a small rural community village. Good news is that Governor Heineman did lower our property taxes about $25.00 per year which as far as I am concerned was a waste of time. I also hope that you will not leave Nebraska like you say you will.

[downthathighway]

We had a working system here for immigration and communicating, set up by our ancestors.
It is very difficult for an adult to learn another language, much easier for schoolkids. The way it USED to be- The immigrant family sent children to school to get an education AND learn English. The children would then interpret for the parents and teach English to the parents by speaking English around the house. There were many immigrants to this country/this state that never learned much English but made sure their children did.
It is going to be very divisive in this country if society stresses multilingual instruction and bilingual signs everywhere- look how divisive Canada is, trying to communicate in two languages. Children adapt easily to new languages and CAN easily learn to be bilingual. If segregated and instructed in their native language, where will the cycle end?
For all the 'P.C.' "let's be nice" types- how fair is that system? OK, signs all over in English, now Spanish, what about all the other languages? How fair is that to the other immigrants who speak neither English or Spanish?
The illegal immigrants would probably gladly follow all our laws if they could. They live in fear of being arrested and deported, so they have to keep a low profile. They work many jobs that the rest of us won't, and amass large amounts of cash, avoiding paper trails like bank accounts.
I can't offer a solution to illegal immigration, the word illegal is self-explanatory.
However, as a businessman who could not get unskilled laborers at a reasonable wage- $8+ per hour to wash dishes at my restaurant- it was very tempting to seek out illegals that would have gladly worked. Fear of prosecution, disdain for seeing others not paying taxes, so instead I did the work as needed, until I could not any more (heart attack, 41 yrs old, working 80+ hrs a week did not help).
We do agree on taxes, kosnebbear.

[tpabes]

"For all the 'P.C.' "let's be nice" types- how fair is that system? OK, signs all over in English, now Spanish, what about all the other languages? How fair is that to the other immigrants who speak neither English or Spanish?"

A quick thought: In G.I for example there are a few ethnic restaurants that everything is in Spanish. If all these companies are putting signs in Spanish for them, shouldn't these immigrant business be putting up signs in English for does of us who don't speak Spanish?

Its just not Omaha with the taxes, its the whole state. We don't have or want things that could maybe bring some relief: tourism, natural resources like coal or gas, casino gambling etc... like some of our neighbors have.

[kosnebbear]

downthathighway,

Sorry to hear about your heart attack. I hope that you are doing okay now. My father died at 43 due to a heart problem so I do hope that you get well soon and your heart gets stronger.

I also agree with you about the P.C.'s of America. Also what about all the other people and their languages. I don't speak, read or write Spanish. I understand a little bit of Albanian and Serbian due to where I am working. They don't care about if I speak it well enough to be able to read a menu or not that is my problem not theirs. In America the P.C.'s tell me that it is my problem because I need to learn their language in order to speak with them. Well I don't feel this way and never will. You come to a country you better learn the language spoken there in order to get along there. Once I was in Germany went to a small cafe for lunch the menu was all in German and the waiters did not speak German. Being an American I just got up walked around the cafe and pointed at the dish that I wanted and the drink that I wanted. Language is a barrier as long as we make it so, but the barrier can be overcome just by learning the local language well enough to get along. In time you will be speaking like a native, just like the immigrates who came 100 years ago to America did. They learned because they had to and they wanted to. Today they don't have to learn and they don't want to learn they are making us adjust to them, which is wrong as far as I am concerned.

tpabes,

Why would we Americans force upon these poor individuals a culture and language that they don't want when it is easier for 300 million Americans to bow down to the 12 to 15 million individuals currently living in America illegally? This what we are doing now because of the liberal and conservatives alike will not defend our country, our cuture, our tradition, our history and yes even our language.

Our taxes go to support these individuals and our Congress and Senate are debating to open up the social security benefits to these poor individuals who have never put into the Social Security Program. I have now for about 42 years, but because I retired from military service I can not use it or I lose some of my military pay. Yet I am still required by law to pay taxes into this program that I can not use that individuals who have never paid into it can. I am also open to get more going in Nebraska to help with our taxes, like using the wind to produce more clean energy to sale to other States. Let us promote a better image for tourism other than what people tell that Nebraska is so flat and boring, they don't know what Nebraska has, because we don't promote tourism like the other states. Now casino gambling, just like in the movie "Waterboy" we have individuals who say that casino gambling is for the devil. These same people control the State Legislature and until these people are over come there will never be casino gambling in Nebraska except on the Indian Reservations and they even tried to tell the Federal Government that they wanted these off of Indian ground, which they failed at doing several times. All of these ideas make sense to you and me, even though I will not gamble, I do not think that we have to stop it as others will go there that do like to gamble.

[mattpoulsen]

First, nobody knows how Pablo's neighbor's children are being taught in school. All he said is the parents don't speak english. Pablo's post is simply a hateful rant attacking his mexican neighbors for his high taxes. I mean come on! There are thousands of reasons that this guy's property taxes are high. His post sounds about like Hitler blaming the Jews for all of Germany's societal problems. The guy wants to blame someone so he picks his neighbors because they're mexican. I don't want to get into the U.S. immigration policy on this thread. Yes, there are problems with U.S. immigration policy. But the reason his property taxes are high is because Omaha needs to expand its tax base and bring in more business and higher paying jobs. The guy is a bitter person who wants to blame everyone else but himself and I was simply responding to that sentiment.

By the way, there were german speaking teachers "back in the day". It just wasn't official state policy. Furthermore, the way education system works, in this day in age, is drastically different than the way it worked in the 1800's (I'm not saying that's a good thing but its a fact of life). Back then a kid could come in not being able to speak English and just be assimilated without much of a problem. Today, a non-English speaking child would be left in the dust without some sort of outreach. If we would simply cut off spanish assistance in school the only thing that would happen is the Mexican children would stop getting educated. They would see even larger levels of dropouts and you would see a spike in crime. While I agree that the state should adopt different rules in how this assistance is effectuated, it still needs to be there. Education reduces crime...period. It is in the best interest of society to be sure that immigrants get the best education as possible. Would you rather spend your tax dollars on education or jails???

And as for businesses that put up signs in spanish...they do that for one reason....money$$$. Walmart doesn't really aim at getting the american-albanian dollar because they're aren't many albanians here. Spanish is by far the largest non-english language spoke in the U.S. and that is why companies are sure to have spanish signs...because a dollar is a dollar whether it comes out of a mexican pocket or an english speaking american pocket. Its not as though the government is forcing companies to put up spanish speaking signs...they're doing it to protect their bottomline. As for Mexican business, who only have spanish signs, well they cater to spanish speakers only. Yeah, they're probably losing business because they alienate the English speakers, but that's their prerogative. This is simply a case of capitalism at its finest...business only put up signs in Spanish to earn more money...period.

[downthathighway]

Mattpoulson- I saw the bitterness in Pablo's post also, he had one good point about property taxes, then went on with with some hateful rants, so I did not know what to say in reply.
Historically, raising taxes does NOT attract businesses, it repels them. The business' goal is of course lower taxes for the business AND any employees they can recruit. Example(s)- Sioux City lost Gateway and IBP to the next town- in S.D., not NE. No income taxes there, better corporate tax structure, maybe several financial reasons. Expanding a tax base, well, that would also bring in more revenue, as they've shown. But "you can't put the genie back in the bottle" once that extra $ starts coming in.
Verrrry good point about education being a deterrent to crime. My sis is a teacher in this state, in a town about 25% Mexican. They do offer 'accellerated assimilation' special ed classes, geared to put the students in mainstream English speaking classrooms, much as the german speaking teachers in the past were there for.
(BTW- that's another advantage to a forum, isn't it? I learned a good point about the importance of educating all children. But still haven't changed my thoughts on the taxes here either. )

[tpabes]

Kosenbear your "Waterboy" comment made me laugh Now picture your state reps, with Henry Winklers head singing, the taxes suck, they really really suck!

[mom2toddlers]

Originally Posted by pablo-me

...dispite they're Mexican Nationals who don't speak english, drive unregistered cars and don't work.

So...you must work at the Mexican embassy, dmv, and unemployment office to know all this about them...I'd think with those 3 jobs you could afford Douglas Co. taxes.