Temporary 2% sales tax increase proposed to fund education (Dallas, Ross: loan, homes)

[Lucidus]

Originally Posted by dv1033

Ok.... so the chief remains calm? I don't get it? Were we expecting our elected officials to be in uproar and panicking? Oh and of course the article states the mainstream media is blowing this out of proportion and we should all this sit back and let our leaders do their thing.

I personally expected those who the cuts were affecting directly to be in an uproar and protesting.... oh wait that's already happening.

Well somebody is always going to be in an uproar and protesting, some people just aren't happy unless they're complaining. The people who are responsible for actually running the state agencies are ok with the budget cuts.

Originally Posted by dv1033

You do realize both FEMA (the federal government), state, and local governments all had the part in the Katrina mess. Disaster response comes from all levels of government.

Furthermore, what do you know about major natural disasters since you live no where close to the gulf coast and you probably didn't get first hand experience of how Hurricane Rita affected Houston. It was a clusterf*ck to put it mildly (considering the hurricane bypassed the Houston metro) and our state and local government's evacuation plans didn't exactly ease the situation.

Hurricane Ike was handled better by all levels of government but was still a mess.

Point is, your mistrust in our federal government's handling of disasters is misplaced; in fact, all levels of government can be equally incompetent in handling natural disasters.

I understand all of that, and I also understand that if the state is broke because we squandered the Rainy Day Fund, it won't improve our response any.

Originally Posted by dv1033

There ya go, you are starting to acknowledge that increased costs are necessary. Unfortunately, since several different state agencies have their hand in our gas tax, it won't simply be eliminated, but toll fees will be added on top of that.

This is actually a good argument against any new "temporary" taxes. We cannot end the gas tax even if we wanted to replace it with something else, the only options really are to add more taxes or hold line with the taxes we have now. I don't think we need any tax increases and the agency heads agree with that.

Originally Posted by dv1033

You still didn't answer my question:

Why should we expect the private sector to boast the economy in the light of spending cuts (and if you had your way, no more corporate welfare)?

The private sector IS the economy. We, or rather the state government, should just try not to burden it unnecessarily.

[jbiggs]

Originally Posted by TexasReb

I agree with much of what you say. As I said in an earlier post, I am very much a fiscal (and social) conservative of the old school variety. And yep, government waste, overspending, etc is the problem and a private company wouldn't stay in business six weeks if they conducted their affairs as does government.

However, there is no reason for the two (using the Rainy Day Fund and cutting spending, etc). to be at odds with one another. If this isn't a rainy day situation, then what could be?

The use of the term "Rainy Day Fund" is not really a proper term. What it should have been called is an "Emergency Fund" to better characterize its purpose. Emergencies are true events that were totally unplanned for and require immediate attention to correct if possible. These budget deficits are not an emergency situation in so far as unplanned for.

Yes you can say that the economic meltdown was unplanned for but any intelligent administrator would have planned for their own potential shortfalls. Instead for the past 10 years our school districts, governments, and others have been living the high life and just throwing money away. They took the attitude that "Hey, we're going to keep growing, and growing, and growing. With that comes more money LATER down the road. So let's not worry about the deficit we are creating now as future growth will pay for it!". What is the difference between that attitude and a person thinking their job is so secure that they can get themselves into tens of thousands of dollars in debt because "Hey I'll always have a job!"??

[jbiggs]

Originally Posted by Montirob

I agree 100%. Unfortunately, the people voted him back into the governor's office. Oh... wait... you were talking about school districts. Seems to me that they have been acting fairly efficiently considering they haven't had an increase in funding since 2006!

Efficiency would be a very questionable aspect of the school systems operations. For example the Dallas ISD did have a major credit card fraud problem in 2006. If I recall correctly they were looking at tens of millions of dollars a year of unexplained charges for dinners, personal car repairs, personal this and that. By the way most of that fraud came from the same teacher groups that are now crying about cutbacks!

[jbiggs]

Originally Posted by dv1033

I get what you are saying, but education isn't the only problem. What about infrastructure? TXDOT is broke: we need to simultaneously build and maintain more roads, bridges, highways, and rail to serve our growing population. Our municipalities are broke, we need to upgrade and replace aged water treatment plants and sewers and maintain our electrical infrastructure. I can seriously go on and on.

I agree with you 100% that there is a great deal of infrastructure that requires improving, upgrading, adding, etc. If you own property here look at your property tax statement and calculate the amount (percentage) of those taxes that go to your local school and how much goes to city and county. It is the city and county portion that helps (not pays totally) to fund some of those infrastructure issues you describe. Most of the property taxes collected (around 80%+) goes to the school system! I certainly don't want to see property taxes rise so more waste in the school system is allowed to occur!

AGAIN WHEN CAN WE USE THE RAINY DO FUND?

As I just stated the nomenclature "Rainy Day Fund" is an improper one. See my response above.

Oh so you want our leaders to start getting bonuses and compensation packages? I get what you are trying to say but private companies aren't always the model of fiscal responsibility that you seem to hold them to be. I would think the past tens of years of corporate scandals would show you how corruptible and greed-driven the private sector is... so it's basically like our present day government.

You're out in left field with the question of leaders getting bonuses and compensation packages as I never even came close to intimating that! The public school leaders are no different and just as corrupt as the political leaders we have now. The statement I made was that a company that runs itself like the school districts did would not last as a business. The businesses can get away with delaying their demise by continually cooking books until their stockholders and creditors catch on. The government (read public school systems as well) can get away with delaying their demise by herding sheeple around into believing what they want until an economic crisis occurs.

Not to mention the basics functions of governments differ from a private companies, the similarities are there but not to extent to model after.

Responses in blue italics above.

[jbiggs]

Originally Posted by Lucidus

The recession has caused a decrease in revenue, nothing too hard to understand about that. It is not a mess though, we simply need to spend less. It only becomes a mess if we try to spend the same or more when the funds are not available.



By being business friendly, low regulation, and low tax.

Exactly 100% on the nail head with that hammer!

[jbiggs]

Originally Posted by TexasReb

I see what you are saying, but you have to keep in mind that it can be honestly argued that government is still the problem. That is to say, many of these corporations receive corporate welfare and bailouts. So, like government, there is no incentive to be fiscally responsible. Personally, I am as much opposed to that type welfare as I am that given to welfare queens.



Which is a central point. The problem is that government has far exceeded its essential functions. Which, in turn, in the nature of the red-tape beast.

I just repped you on this one and wish I could rep you on previous ones as well!

This whole mess in correctable if our leaders in the government, and the school system, as well as the participants (read teachers and staff) would remove their heads from where the sun does not shine and understand that throwing more money at the problem will not make it go away! At this point the corrections involve heavy cuts in spending. Throwing more money at the problem only creates a bigger debt that will have to be paid off. To pay that debt off we are talking more taxes, or cuts in other areas that might already be hurting for proper funding.

[jbiggs]

Originally Posted by dv1033

Unfortunately, conservatives don't seem to understand or care about the demographic tsunami that is building in the horizon until it starts affecting them.

It's unfortunate that we as a state and country have become so sick of wasteful spending that we close our eyes and put our fingers in our ears. There's a difference between smart spending and spending.

It's called apathy and you are correct! The American people will do nothing but stick their fingers in their ears until it affects them badly enough. We are seeing this with the current education spending/funding issue. I've said it before and I'll say it again, by the time it affects them enough that the people do something about it, it is either too late or very near it.

What we are seeing now are the school staffs trying to rally the people to spend more money to save their jobs. Where were these same people over the last decade when all of the wasteful spending was occurring? These are suppose to be educated people educating our children. I really do find it hard to believe they, the educated ones, could not see the waste and abuse occurring around them every day? The time to avoid a major problem is to handle the smaller symptoms before they become big!

[alphamale]

There's never been a temporary tax.

The income tax was supposed to be temporary.

[djg11]

I'm a student at UH n once i heard that tuition will skyrocket like no other, I was furious! These politicians doesn't know how to handle money. They spend on useless things but the best part is that education always gets CUT first before everything else. I can barely afford my tuition right now and they change books every couple of years. BOOKS R HELLA EXPENSIVE!!!I already signed the petition to stop this thing. hope everything follows through.

Moderator cut: off topic/cross-posting

[buzzpost]

Originally Posted by Bo

Sales Tax Increase Proposed: Would raise money to avoid education cuts


In many counties, this measure would push sales tax to over 10%.

A tax increase is NEVER temporary.

Originally Posted by Wonderful Jellal

Temporary 2% sales tax increase

Sales tax increase = always permanent, don't you know your economic history ?
But why not, it's not a dramatic increase.

Yep, just turn up the heat a little at a time and the frog never knows that he is going to be boiling soon.

Originally Posted by Bo

Without new funding, education spending will be cut much more than 2%. School districts statewide have announced plans to lay off thousands of teachers and paraprofessional staff.

So? Are they guaranteed jobs forever just because they are teachers? There are a lot of other professions losing jobs as well, and have been for some time.

If they are so special, why is the graduation rate in Dallas County at around 50 percent?