Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Not so fast there! Aren't police funded by property taxes? If so let's talk about village cops and their overkill SWAT/K-9 expensive vehicles and how LITTLE they do about real crime.
You mean handing out multi-hundred dollar traffic tickets for exceeding an arbitrary speed limit is NOT the primary--and only--goal of our local police?
Next you'll be noticing that we pay 10 times more for education than we did just a couple of decades ago, and get NO extra academic achievement!
Not so fast there! Aren't police funded by property taxes? If so let's talk about village cops and their overkill SWAT/K-9 expensive vehicles and how LITTLE they do about real crime.
So by the logic advocated this thread, we should get rid of the publicly funded police department and rely on private security contractors. Only people that want any laws enforced and/or police services AND are able to pay for those services should get it.
I'd say get your police department (and their budget) under control during town meetings/elections. Don't throw the whole thing out.
So by the logic advocated this thread, we should get rid of the publicly funded police department and rely on private security contractors. Only people that want any laws enforced and/or police services AND are able to pay for those services should get it.
I'd say get your police department (and their budget) under control during town meetings/elections. Don't throw the whole thing out.
OF COURSE you would need to hire a private security force, or a lawyer, to get any "justice." Someone rips you off, you either swallow it, or "sue them" and lose even more to the court system. That's a "civil dispute" no matter how ridiculous and blatant the rip-off.
Similarly, the police couldn't care less about your car being stolen, or your house being broken into. I know; both happened to me. The cops even knew the gang that stole my car from the local mall. Yet they never lifted a finger to investigate or prosecute. I GAVE the name of the local delinquent who broke into my house, after the police did nothing. All I had to do was ask the neighborhood kids. But even with the name, all I got was a stern warning not to even THINK about approaching the delinquent or his parents. The scumbag kid was still pillaging that neighborhood when I moved years later. Not even a single visit to tell the kids the cops were watching. The kids LAUGH at cops: but the joke's on us. We pay a fortune for an army of cops that do nothing but steal from highway commuters. And they typically steal FAR more than a robber would--few of us carry $200 or $300 in cash to be stolen in a mugging.
I watched a recent documentary on a family with 2 kids who took a wrong turn in California, and luckily the family was rich and hired a helicopter that found the woman and children barely alive over a week later. Even though the family had connections all the way up to the POTUS, the "official" search was a joke, mismanaged, and totally inept. I remember another recent documentary of 2 women hikers who got lost in the mountains and stuck on a cliff, and again the police search was a joke--but a family member in a rented helicopter AGAIN found the two, after the official search was called off.
As for getting the police department and local government under control via voting, good luck. One local Town Council member told us he didn't DARE speak out anymore when the cops and firefighters requested huge increases and ridiculous benefits. The one time he did, the firefighters showed up at his house and vandalized it, and basically told him if he spoke up "against them" again, they'd burn his house down with his family in it. He went to the police to report it, and they told him they were 100% in support of their "brothers" and wouldn't even respond if he called. And this is a TOWN COUNCIL member--who has WAY more influence or power than a meaningless voter ever would.
For every voter who understands the ultimate corruption of government, there are 2 liberals who will support ANY tax increase for ANY reason--because Big Government is the solution to all problems.
I just hope there is someplace left that isn't ruled totally by a corrupt aristocracy of government, once the housing market exists again. It is amazing how few places we can now go that are free of government micro-rule. Even the states that boast "low taxes" are a joke--ALL states take somewhere around 10% of your income, and the difference between the most taxing and the least is very small. Add to that the bloated federal monster that is so grossly overgrown that our economy can no longer function, and we've got very little hope left. Big Government won't save you when the house of cards they've built collapses. Instead, they arranged the crash, and you'll come out the other side even poorer than you are now.
There is a proposed state constitutional amendment forbidding an income Tax ever. I am opposed to that because income is a direct indicator of the benefits a person receives from society. Instead of forbidding a State Income Tax I think we should remove the rooms and meals tax and replace it with a 5% income tax on all income from all sources with a $100,000 deductable. The revenue from the Income Tax should be used to support the County Elderly hospitals.
What about all the old folks in NH? If I live in NH, why should I pay for all of the oldsters to be kept in nursing homes? I don't use nursing homes, so why pay for them? If the seniors can't afford it, dump 'em in the streets.
The entire system in the NE is foreign to me. Property taxes are so high and most of that money goes to the school systems in places like NJ, NH, PA, etc.
However, here in FL and GA, our taxes are LOW and stay low (ours actually declined for school funding this year by order of state lawmakers). We pay around $1,600 on a home that we bought last year for $164k. Only half of my taxes are for the school. The rest are for city, county, water management district, and hospital.
Around 50% of school funding comes from the state in both FL and GA (using these states as example b/c I've lived in both). That state money comes from sales tax revenues and state income taxes (GA but not FL), as well as other sources of state revenues.
GA has a state-wide teacher salary schedule and local areas add their own supplements. The result is a very competitive teacher pay rate, esp given the very low cost of living in GA. GA also puts all teachers on the state employee health insurance plan. (a pretty good deal, but nowhere near as cheap or comprehensive as you get in NJ, PA, NH, etc)
In FL, each district has its own salary schedule, as well as its own health insurance plan. (insurance is poor and expensive)
I don't understand why taxes are so high in states like NJ when the state has an income tax. Why do local taxpayers still pay through the nose for the schools?
One other thing to mention is that schools in FL and GA tend to be very new when compared to buildings up north. I have no idea where all of the capital funding comes from, but we are building new schools here in FL right and left (and they are already over capacity after just a few years in my growing district).
We save a lot in the South by offering very low paying pensions, and often times mediocre medical benefits (no dental, vision, etc - that's on your own for extra money). Premium increases are passed on to the teachers, and co-pays, co-insurance just doubled in GA.
At this point, I'm scared to move to NH because of the state budget woes (same as most states these days), but also because of the high property taxes. Who wants to lock into paying $800+ a month in taxes forever? That kind of carrying cost is not going to work for the younger generation. We just don't have that many high-paying jobs to go around anymore.
What about all the old folks in NH? If I live in NH, why should I pay for all of the oldsters to be kept in nursing homes? I don't use nursing homes, so why pay for them? If the seniors can't afford it, dump 'em in the streets.
The entire system in the NE is foreign to me. Property taxes are so high and most of that money goes to the school systems in places like NJ, NH, PA, etc.
However, here in FL and GA, our taxes are LOW and stay low (ours actually declined for school funding this year by order of state lawmakers). We pay around $1,600 on a home that we bought last year for $164k. Only half of my taxes are for the school. The rest are for city, county, water management district, and hospital.
Around 50% of school funding comes from the state in both FL and GA (using these states as example b/c I've lived in both). That state money comes from sales tax revenues and state income taxes (GA but not FL), as well as other sources of state revenues.
GA has a state-wide teacher salary schedule and local areas add their own supplements. The result is a very competitive teacher pay rate, esp given the very low cost of living in GA. GA also puts all teachers on the state employee health insurance plan. (a pretty good deal, but nowhere near as cheap or comprehensive as you get in NJ, PA, NH, etc)
In FL, each district has its own salary schedule, as well as its own health insurance plan. (insurance is poor and expensive)
I don't understand why taxes are so high in states like NJ when the state has an income tax. Why do local taxpayers still pay through the nose for the schools?
One other thing to mention is that schools in FL and GA tend to be very new when compared to buildings up north. I have no idea where all of the capital funding comes from, but we are building new schools here in FL right and left (and they are already over capacity after just a few years in my growing district).
We save a lot in the South by offering very low paying pensions, and often times mediocre medical benefits (no dental, vision, etc - that's on your own for extra money). Premium increases are passed on to the teachers, and co-pays, co-insurance just doubled in GA.
At this point, I'm scared to move to NH because of the state budget woes (same as most states these days), but also because of the high property taxes. Who wants to lock into paying $800+ a month in taxes forever? That kind of carrying cost is not going to work for the younger generation. We just don't have that many high-paying jobs to go around anymore.
There is a proposed state constitutional amendment forbidding an income Tax ever. I am opposed to that because income is a direct indicator of the benefits a person receives from society. Instead of forbidding a State Income Tax I think we should remove the rooms and meals tax and replace it with a 5% income tax on all income from all sources with a $100,000 deductable. The revenue from the Income Tax should be used to support the County Elderly hospitals.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Oh geez....
Income has NOTHING to do with what the person receives from society. It has to do with what they make as life choices.
I fully support a constitution amendment to ban all taxes in the state I live, and if you don't like it, there are 49 other states you can live in. (though I would gladly pay $10,000 for the deportation of you and all the socialists for a one-way plane ticket to some other (socialist) country, with a binding resolution that you and all of them never return). Thomas Jefferson was SO right.
Where do you get the idea that you are obligated to other peoples' hard earned money? I ask nothing from you (except to shut up), and please reciprocate to ask nothing from me.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Oh geez....
Income has NOTHING to do with what the person receives from society. It has to do with what they make as life choices.
I fully support a constitution amendment to ban all taxes in the state I live, and if you don't like it, there are 49 other states you can live in. (though I would gladly pay $10,000 for the deportation of you and all the socialists for a one-way plane ticket to some other (socialist) country, with a binding resolution that you and all of them never return). Thomas Jefferson was SO right.
Where do you get the idea that you are obligated to other peoples' hard earned money? I ask nothing from you (except to shut up), and please reciprocate to ask nothing from me.
I think you have it backwards.
One of the first things that early settlers did was band together and hire a sheriff and a schoolteacher. They weren't being "socialists" as much as they were creating a society.
Many of us who pay taxes actually believe that we should pay taxes for things like roads, schools, nursing homes, polics and firefighters (YIKES though to the story above.) If YOU don't like it, feel free to buy yourself a private island somewhere where you can be all by yourself, since you seem to dislike being part of a society.
Why do all of you "successful capitalists" insist the warmongers and their parasitic bankers are entitled to MY money? How many of you are contracted to the government directly or indirectly through another government contractor. How many of you are on the dole? At least I want my tax money spent on the less fortunate and not Koch Industries or United Technologies. Why is socialism for the successful acceptable but not for the poor? Are you guys ok with voting yourselves money?
Jefferson was concerned that businesses would buy the votes of Congress and to get contracts. He knew who the real thieves are.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
