I'm Tired Of Paying; You're On Your Own

by: Juan Melli

Sun Sep 10, 2006 at 02:48:39 PM EDT

Rising property taxes are a serious issue, driving many out of the state and quickly making it unaffordable for thousands of others. A major cause of the problem is that our school systems are funded largely through local property taxes, so as school costs rise, those with fixed incomes, like retirees, are hit the hardest. A reasonable fix to address this aspect of the problem would be shifting the funding source from property taxes to income taxes. Property taxes and education are serious issues that deserve an honest debate, which is why it was disappointing to read an article by Tom Hester today titled New Jerseyans without schoolchildren: Why should we fund schools?

There's many easy answers to this question. Education leads to lower crime rates and helps create a more skilled workforce and vibrant economy. Both of these things keep property values high. Public education is an investment from which everyone in society benefits.

Instead, Hester heard from people whose kids benefited from taxpayer funded education, but now want to bail out of the system:

George Rogozin's three children have finished public school, but the 78-year-old East Greenwich man still watches much of his taxes go to educate children — other people's children.
....
"I'm on a fixed income and it's becoming ever so difficult to keep up," Rogozin said. "When I pay my quarterly tax amount that eats up that month's Social Security paycheck."

Now as I said, I think our school funding system is unfairly structured and burdens those like Mr Rogozin who can afford it the least. But by this logic, why should I have to pay Social Security taxes? I'm not retired, and I don't have any grandparents collecting Social Security. Since senior citizens are the ones mostly collecting Social Security, they should be the ones who pay for it, right? Of course not, that's as dumb as suggesting only people with school-aged children should pay for education, but somehow it made sense to dedicate an entire article to that idea...

Juan Melli :: I'm Tired Of Paying; You're On Your Own

Tags: Tom Hester, property taxes, Schools, (All Tags)

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I'm Tired Of Paying; You're On Your Own | 5 comments

Re (4.00 / 1)

Q: "Why should I pay for education when I don't have kids?"

A: "Because someone else paid for your education when you were in school. Someone else paid for the schools between the time when they were founded and when you stumbled into the doors."

In other words - these people got a free education and now don't want to foot the bill like people did for them.

by: Thurman Hart @ Sun Sep 10, 2006 at 21:41:54 PM UTC

Creeping Selfishness (0.00 / 0)

It's that new, creeping libertarianism that is becoming so popular with the kids today. They believe that they shouldn't have to pay taxes for things they don't use: Schools, health care, social services...whatever.

As Expat said above, these selfish people forget who helped them, their families, their neighborhood. My very own brother, as I, a product of the public school system and the public STATE UNIVERSITY system, thinks that he shouldn't have to pay taxes to support those things.

Ignorance is very expensive. Educating our youth (even those of us who don't have children) pays off. Let's face it, we're going to need those kids to earn good livings if we middle-agers want to collect Social Security!!

by: the pollster @ Sun Sep 10, 2006 at 23:40:04 PM UTC

Selfishness (0.00 / 0)

Mr. Rogozin says "When I pay my quarterly tax amount that eats up that month's Social Security paycheck." Yes, he called it a "paycheck"--an interesting way of putting it. But do the math: either he's getting more Social Security every month than anybody else, or his quarterly tax bill is really low--think about it.

And he went to tax-supported public schools himself but now doesn't want to pay for public schools for other people's kids? Perhaps he also wants to be exempted from paying for his town's fire department because he's never had a fire?

True, retirees and others on fixed incomes are hit harder than anyone else by property taxes--but that's why, IMHO, we should be financing public services, including schools, with a progressive income tax. One of the worst things ever to happen in NJ was Christie Whitman's income tax cuts--look at the mess that's gotten us into!

Dubya has done the same thing at the federal level. It's not an accident--it's a Republican political program. Cut taxes, borrow and spend, increase the deficit--then, when the Democrats win, they'll have to increase taxes to pay the bills, everybody will get mad, and the Republicans will win again.

I don't remember which US Supreme Court justice it was who said, "Taxes are the price we pay for living in a civilized society." But how right he was--and how selfish so many Americans are!

"Do what you can, with what you have, where you are." (Teddy Roosevelt)

by: DottieG @ Mon Sep 11, 2006 at 06:47:56 AM UTC

A quality school system (0.00 / 0)

increases property values as the demand for housing by people with school aged children goes to municipalities with schools that perform at high levels. Property and taxes are cheap in Mississippi and Alabama where they spend the least on education. Toyota recently decided to not put up an assembly plant in either state because the population was too stupid to operate the means of production at 100% capacity. They put their plant in Canada where the people are better educated and national health care reduced the hourly wage demand by four to five dollars. The fact remains "No one ever went broke underestimating the intellegence of the American voter."
{H.L. Menken)

Restore democracy and the Constitution for which it stands.

by: The Wizard @ Mon Sep 11, 2006 at 13:30:45 PM UTC

Sorry Mr. Rogozin, hand it over, you actually OWE (0.00 / 0)

If you had three kids in a public school system for 12 years, that is in today's dollars $120,000 each or $360,000 for three kids.

$360,000. That's the value of this education, in 2006 dollars, that he got when his kids are young.

At $5,400 (in the equiv. of 2006 dollars) each year, that's 66 years to pay that back. Even if he paid $100 in the 50's or 60's i'll accept that he paid $5,400 in 2006 dollars.

Did he pay that back yet? Prob not. I assume he wasn't 12 when he started paying prop taxes.. but i could be wrong.

Sorry Mr. Rogozin, hand it over.

Opps forgot about kindergarden.. Another $

(This is of course silly, but it shows you that outside of the moral problems there's simply a finicial problem - there aren't enough parents of school-age children to pay for a school at $10,000 a pop. Or for that matter to even fund vouchers at $10,000 a pop)

myhistorycanbeatupyourpolitics.blogspot.com

by: underdogdemocrat @ Mon Sep 11, 2006 at 19:08:02 PM UTC