Where Do My Tax Dollars Go? To Pay off Someone Else's Debt!
My Local Municipal Property Taxes
We get them twice a year, once in the summer and once in the winter. And every year they go higher and higher with no end in sight.
I'm sure compared to some neighborhoods, these $3K in yearly taxes are no big deal, but I'm not a big money guy. I make enough to feed my family and take care of their needs, but anything beyond this saved and invested. There are no exemptions or credits. You pay or you are evicted.
They Know People are Unhappy
They send this apology letter to help citizens understand all the good uses that your money goes towards. You know, roads, charities, elderly care... no?
Schools! Libraries! Ambiguous Acronyms! Do it for the children!
Summer Taxes
Average School Debt?!?!?
About 35% of the SUMMER tax bill goes to school debt. Not MY school debt, from education that I received. Just... school debt. Saying that 35% of my payment is going to "School Debt", does not really explain where my tax dollars are going.
Even if I discovered all the details of the "School Debt", I would not be exempt from paying this $635.00.
The Biggest Costs to the Taxpayer, SUMMER AND WINTER:
| Schools | $1036.00 | 35% |
|---|---|---|
| Police | $532.00 | 18% |
| Fire | $416.00 | 14% |
| Gov. Operation | $358.00 | 12% |
| Libraries | $262.00 | 9% |
| Various | $393.00 | 12% |
We must remember that our schools are government funded WELFARE education. If 35% of tax payments went towards food stamps or welfare checks, would people be OK with that? What makes Schools exempt? Education welfare is socially acceptable, but welfare checks to single mom is (still slightly) taboo?
Meanwhile... our roads!
These photos were taken right down the street. The road has been patched with bubblegum asphalt patches for decades and it shows. The whole road needs to be taken out and resurfaced.
The Apology letter brings up roads: because they know people are going to ask. Roads are terrible around here.
What about Roads? Roads are under the jurisdiction of the county. Except for voter approved Special Assessments (SAD), road dollars come from the State and are funded mostly by the gas tax and car registrations.
Education before Infrastructure
When we pay our property taxes, 35% goes towards schools and 0% goes towards roads and other infrastructure.
32% goes towards Fire and Police, while 12% goes towards operating the local government!
9% goes towards libraries, while 0.01% goes towards Veterans!
Winter Taxes
What sort of bizzaro world do we live in where "education" costs the tax payer more than Police and Fire COMBINED!!! And we voted for this? What is going on here?
Lay your tribute at the feet of the "god" of education.
How does this compare to your Local Government Taxes?
Is this typical? Does 1/3 of your tax money go towards education? Paying off School Debts? Let me know in the comments if this is normal, or if I just live in a messed up area.
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I think its so interesting we are paying for education we dont even use...???
It's protection money, so they'll leave us alone so we can train our children appropriately at home. @ironshield
I'll try to see it that way now lol Great perspective! You need to get some acreage so you can deem it agricultural and then your taxes go👎🏻
Protection money. Yeah, that's about the size of it. If we fuss about it, we're likely to bring all kinds of trouble crashing down on our heads. We scrape up enough money to present to them for the privilege of being left alone.
This is what upsets me, i took an early retirement 3 years ago, and i put money away for the tax's till i collect Social Security. They have raised tax's every year and now i dip into savings to pay them. I keep telling my friends that you need to own your home NOT rent ( because of high rent)when you retire, or else you will be working to pay tax's till you die!!!!
I think that may be the idea - tax people until they say "enough" and begin doing something about it. As long as everything is business as usual, they'll keep raising them. It's like a bully, pushing around a complacent kid who complains about the pushing, maybe laughs about it, but nothing really makes the pushing go away. Imagine the guts it would take for the bully to say "It's good that you're pushed around, it's for the CHILDREN. You want them to be EDUCATED, right? Take it and be happy about it." That's how I see the modern tax system. @ironshield
Exactly, you would be shocked to see the schools they tear down and rebuild up here in the N.W. They have professional landscapeing and they light up the (campus ) like a Cosco parking lot, while i conserve. And this is the middle school!!!! High power football field lights are always on even when its daylight! They don’t care, it’s free.......we just need another levey!
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Great post. Thanks for your effort to try to wake people up. 🤘😊👍
Thank you! I would try to fight it, but I feel pretty powerless. @ironshield
howdy @ironshield! our property taxes here in Texas is absolutely obscene and rising dramatically every year, it's a license to steal and proves that you don't really own your own property, just try not paying these outrageous taxes. Most are going to schools which are sucking in millions more each year whether you have kids or not or have them in the public schools or not. The roads out here are the roughest, most torn up roads I've ever seen in my life while the county government is super rich because of all the taxes.
I think it's the same everywhere.
I'm thinking this is the sad state of affairs in an awful lot of the US, at least.
It's because we have made education such a god that no one dares vote against increasing funds, no matter how poor the output. And then we're given all kinds of guilt trips with people talking about how terrible the pay to the teachers is. I don't think this money is going where it ought to go anyway, but I think the teachers should be getting a lot more salary given the education budgets around the states.
howdy there @Iturner! yes Ma'am I couldn't agree more. When we lived in the city there was a huge push to put through yet another round of taxes "for the kids" with all the guilt trips like you mentioned. then when they passed it suddenly every single school in the city were built huge new schools! we know the teachers aren't getting it so who knows who is? in our case we could see where all the money was being spent but usually it's a mystery.
Is the home schooling ..I don't know what to call it, movement? is that growing? hopefully?
I agree, so much is done "for the children"...every time I hear that phrase trotted out I get suspicious as to what's being hidden.
The homeschooling movement: It's hard for me to say. I'm not really involved in any groups or wider associations (other than HSLDA) to give me a feel for how many people are really choosing and sticking with homeschooling compared to the past. There seems to be a lot more people homeschooling now than when my parents started back in the 80s, but a lot of first generation homeschoolers are also putting their kids into school and ignoring what their parents decided to do.
I think it's always going to be a pretty small percentage of the population, ultimately, because so much of it exists outside the "safety framework" society provides to tell us if we're being good parents or not, so it's really intimidating to stick it out to the end.
howdy back @lturner and thank you for all the information. Your mom homeschooled you so she was kind of a Trailblazer wasn't she?
It seems like the movement would be increasing with so many people getting sick of what is being taught in public schools.
thanks so much for your comment!
You're welcome, @janton! Yes, my parents were trailblazers, but not the first - there were parents in the 70s who did it when it was actively illegal, while my parents started when it was in the gray area between legal and illegal: not yet sanctioned but no longer flatly forbidden.
You would think: and yet most people gravitate toward fighting to fix the system rather than just getting out of it. The Pilgrims came to America in 1620, but they left England a long time before that. They didn't like the system, so they fled. The Puritans had similar beliefs to the Pilgrims but it took them a whole lot longer to figure out they weren't going to be able to change the Church of England from the inside and they were going to have to leave too.
yes, very interesting to observe how people behave concerning school. I think most probably wouldn't consider home schooling but maybe many more do but they feel they can't because of jobs or something.
at least you guys are doing it right! thanks so much for the response and information!
God bless you all!
Interesting read. This could be about South Africa except that here the children (of the underpriviledged who receive free education and housing) burn the schools!
Woah, that's extreme. I'm an advocate of home-schooling, not burn-schooling! @ironshield
Home-schooling all the way
I'm not sure what mine is, I will have to look more closely the next time! I however wish someone would finish paying off the school debt that I have left!
Living here, we pay off school debt we don't even have! I say boycott all schools, they overcharge. We should homeschool our children and no longer rely on welfare education. @ironshield
Yes...the population as a whole need to get away from government handouts, I'm pretty sure that is NOT what the founding Fathers envisioned for this country!
I don't much like handouts, but in our situation, a handout is sort of like a refund! @ironshield
We had ours hanging on the fridge, so reading this made us want to check ours out. Man, we have you beat! 53% of our property taxes go to the schools. And I can assure you we will not be sending our kids there either. That is just sad that they put schools over those awful roads. What is the school’s debt anyways? I know the school I went to spent all their money on the sports programs and having the latest Macs. Dumb and dumb!
Wow, 53% that's crazy! Why can't the schools raise their own money? Sell candy-bars or something? Oh I know. Compulsory giving is easier. It's for the children. Do it for the children. If you don't, you must hate children. @ironshield
I know the schools around here already do a lot of fund-raising for class trips. The fund-raising is constant, I’m surprised the communities aren’t tired of it.
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