school board

my local school board just awarded contracts to build a new middle school. This is an outrage!

There is no referandem on it. Our taxes are already the highest allowed by law- the increase will have to be approved by a judge- which there is precedent because a neighboring town has allowed 3 or so increases.

I am livid.

Forget about running for congress- like my buddy did- school board and water authorities have the real power.

Yeah, people really need to pay attention to what's happening at the local level. In general, it affects you more and you have more power over it (your vote counts more [is more heavily weighted] in local elections).

PMBug said:

Yeah, people really need to pay attention to what's happening at the local level. In general, it affects you more and you have more power over it (your vote counts more [is more heavily weighted] in local elections).

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What's the saying? "All politics is local." While your vote for pres. and senator is statewide, your vote for congressman is basically a local election too. When you consider they come up for election for every 2 years, a smart electorate can vote the bums out of power in the house fairly quickly. Then again if we had a smart electorate, we wouldn't be in the shape we're in whether nationally, regionally or locally.

We've had a couple votes about adding schools and adding funds to schools and they generally pass about 75/25, so I can only assume a local board wouldn't put it up for a vote cause they are either sure they will lose, or they are not positive it will pass. Our population is exploding cause of the oil boom and people here are big on their kids getting a good school for their kids that isn't overcrowded. I know I don't mind paying what amounts to a couple dollars extra a month for that. I know there are some people who are the opposite. I just don't understand it, and it's not because I have kids vs. those who don't. Even before I had kids I had a friend who didn't and he was all pissed off about an upcoming ballot measure to add on to and upgrade some existing schools. I said it's important for the kids to have a good student to teacher ratio and be in a decent building. He started screaming about how they can stick 100 kids in a quonset hut and a chalkboard. This is a guy who had 2 kids at the time! I just don't understand how people can think like that ESPECIALLY ones who have kids.

a new building has nothing to do with education. It is just a building.

Penn said:

a new building has nothing to do with education. It is just a building.

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Has everything to do with education. If you are trying to cram 50 students into a room designed for 20, it makes it tough to learn. If you are in a building where the insulation and heating are so pathetic you have to wear your coat and gloves, it makes it tough to learn. If kids are danger of being hurt because of things falling apart, it makes it tough to learn. I could go on and on, but if you don't understand, no matter how many examples I use it will be lost on you.

11C1P said:

Has everything to do with education. If you are trying to cram 50 students into a room designed for 20, it makes it tough to learn. If you are in a building where the insulation and heating are so pathetic you have to wear your coat and gloves, it makes it tough to learn. If kids are danger of being hurt because of things falling apart, it makes it tough to learn. I could go on and on, but if you don't understand, no matter how many examples I use it will be lost on you.

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If they had the money when there were 20 kids in a class, they should have 2.5 times more money now that there are 50. People are having less children so there should be a larger tax base to draw from without raising the rate.

It pisses me off- we are in the largest recession of our lifetime- and we are still spending money like everyone has cash.

Most people I know are having a hard time. A person who never admitted to me how bad things are- clued me in. Make that 2 of them locally.

We have a new library which was a waste of money. There are plans for a community college- and guess where it will go? In the old school that was closed 10 years ago for bussing.

We do not need state of the art everything. Not in a town of 10,000.

1/2 the town is retired or on disability- thats what the lady at the water company told me.

Chigg said:

If they had the money when there were 20 kids in a class, they should have 2.5 times more money now that there are 50. People are having less children so there should be a larger tax base to draw from without raising the rate.

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Doesn't work that way here, especially in this city. We're only 1/2 the size of the biggest city in the state, but we have more kids enrolled in school. Also this isn't a gradual increase over several years. The whole states population is exploding. In fact one of the schools they just built was actually going to be over capacity by the 2nd year but they designed it so it could expand easily and they built the gym/cafeteria big enough to accommodate a larger capacity. When people move in they just don't hand over a years worth of taxes to the school here, that's awesome that they do that where you live. Here they have to find a place to live, which is next to impossible, then if they find a place to live, they will pay taxes on their property AFTER the new year, generally around the time school is nearly out for the year. We have people making $80,000 a year living in homeless shelters, or in their car, so they aren't paying a lot of property taxes either, more of draining of resources. They do buy stuff and our sales tax revenue is through the roof, but most of that is state sales tax, 1% is city sales tax, and the school doesn't get all of that, they share it with whatever else the city has planned for it. That is one of those "1 time sales tax till we get this paid for" then as soon as it's paid for they say "hey let's just leave it in place and we'll buy something else" taxes. Also again they don't get the sales taxes on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. They dole it out once or twice a year. If the school board needs money and can't get it from they city, they usually put a measure on the ballot, and more often that not they pass, and by a large margin.

Right now the state is sitting on so much money there is a big fight whether or not we should get rid of property taxes and sales tax, but the cities and counties don't get oil revenue directly so they are against it. I don't see why they can't get rid of the state portion of property and sales tax and let the counties and cities leave those in place, I guess maybe cause when dealing with politicians, common sense is and uncommon virtue.

We just passed a 0.5 cent sales tax to help fund schools. It was written to preclude more cuts to existing budgets while at the same time requiring apportionment of the new funds to schools [and schools only] on a per pupil basis.

We did this to avoid yet another tax levy on property. I suppose it is the lesser of two evils sort of scenario, but our schools really are in rough shape. While out teachers are indeed unionized, only about a third of them join it.
In addition, our teachers are among the lowest paid in the nation. I think we did the right thing in this particular case.

most the houses here are older then the oldest school.

they scam a new building claiming the old building can not be repaired. a hot shot gets that property for $1 or some low number. Next thing you know it is turned into an office complex.

The buildings are never tore down.

For someone is is cost efficient to bring them up to par.

The new school is going to cost 19 million $. Our sister city is raising property taxes 23%.

In PA there is an effort to get rid of property taxes all together- sort of-- and raise the sales tax. I am against it- because we will see both.

The one school they already closed could be in the historic registry- it has elegant brick deco- all fancy.

Even now we have reached the point where people and banks simply walk away from properties rather then to repair AND pay the tax bill combined with water, sewer assessments and flood wall.

If they really wanted the community college- use the high school at night. I think we are still paying the bond issue.

The city is already 400k in the red, now we discovered we gave the police an insane pension plan- that no one knows how it will be paid for. The issues on the county level are bad too. We need a new 911 center and a new prison. Tho they did mention a token decrease for now in tax.

On this thread- we are, and we are not talking about the same thing. As your area may be a different mix of people, needs, etc ect

why is there a state portion of property tax?

I never heard of that.

??

The rule is when one bond issue is paid off- must MUST have another. Even if it is for a bird watching park!

Penn said:

why is there a state portion of property tax?

I never heard of that.

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I am sure we have a lot of laws people in various states have never heard of. I just found out is illegal for a moose to stand on a sidewalk in Alaska. What are they going to do, arrest the moose? Also it is illegal in Alaska to wake up a bear to take a picture with it. I guess it's ok to wake it up for other purposes. (i've been watching a lot of Alaska shows lately.)


http://www.retirementliving.com/taxes-new-york-wyoming#NORTHDAKOTA

Property Taxes

All real property in the state is subject to tax by the state, counties, townships, and municipalities. Residential property is taxed as 9% of assessed value.


We are #10 on the list for worst states on property tax.

http://taxes.about.com/od/statetaxes/a/property-taxes-best-and-worst-states.htm

Worst States for Property Taxes

The Tax Foundation found that homeowners in these states paid the most in property taxes compared to home value. The percentages represent the percentage of home value that homeowners pay in property taxes.

New Jersey - 1.89%
New Hampshire - 1.86%
Texas - 1.81%
Wisconsin - 1.76%
Nebraska - 1.70%
Illinois - 1.73%
Connecticut - 1.63%
Michigan - 1.62%
Vermont - 1.59%
North Dakota - 1.42%

My state came in #3 on the best list, but that's just the average. Mines due next month and I'll pay about %1 of what I think I could sell my house for.
Can't wait till we get a federal net worth tax.:doodoo: