My wife has an electronic piggy bank. When you put a coin in the bank's slot, the pig snorts a few times and says, "More Money, More Money!!" The St. Lawrence County Legislature reminds me of that bank.
About once a year, county officials start to salivate thinking about a 1% sales tax increase when they look at their budget shortfall and the bloated programs they've put in place over the years. Oh, these programs were well intentioned and probably met a need in an impoverished county like ours.
So, the county legislators and bureaucrats started a new service (read new program with its own office and staff) here and there because "there's a state grant for that" or "the federal government has money to cover that."
Trouble is, those grants require a local match from the county and many times the state and federal program funding (read government welfare) ends but our county program continues at local cost because we don't want to lay anyone off or end a "very worthwhile" service.
So, how do you pay for the bloat, the additional jobs and the resulting health insurance and pension costs for those programs?
You snort a few times and say "More Money, More Money! Raise the Sales Tax! It's only one percent!", snort, snort.
I don't want to pay more taxes; sales, property or otherwise.
But think about this for a minute: This year, I paid 871.75 in county taxes. If, God forbid, my county taxes go up 30% as officials speculate might happen next year, that will be an increase of $261.54. That a lot, to be sure.
But then, look at a sales tax increase of "only one percent." That's one percent of almost everything I spend my money on over the course of a year: clothing, gasoline, heating oil or natural gas, a meal at my favorite restaurant, a beer, a soda, most of my bill at the grocery store or Wal*Mart, a new car, etc., etc., etc.
The $261.54 I could possibly pay next year in more county taxes is equivalent to to one-percent of $26,154 I will likely spend on everything else in my daily life in that same year.
Meanwhile, county and state politicians continue to argue and insult one another over the best way to pick our pockets. The county politicos want to raise sales tax to save special projects and programs. State politicians want to claim the moral high ground against higher taxes but refuse to cut waste and eliminate fraud on their end. (And they're far too busy debating same sex marriage to do any real work anyway.)
Everybody continues to spend more and government grows and grows.
Wealthy people, farmers, developers and others who own large amounts of property would rather we all pay more sales tax so their property taxes don't go up. No one wants to pay more taxes and the average tax payer won't even consider losing some government provided services, no matter how costly or unnecessary.
As the piggy bank says, "More money, more money, more money. Snort, snort, snort."
I agree with you. Its not the low class or high class people that pay its the middle class that suffers the most. The ones that make to much to get an ounce of help but yet keep having taxes, electric and everything else raised. I pay almost 3,000 a year just on property and school tax. Yet where exactly does that money go? School tax? We pay for a new roadway and parking lot and turf for the highschool yet we get rid teachers and programs our children need? All these people who get welfare and disability ought to be randomly drugtested before being handed foodstamps and cash. What is this country becoming?
ReplyDeleteAnonymous, what would be the savings from randomly drug-testing welfare recipients? What would you do with those who test positive? If you drop them (and their families) from Public Assistance, do you simply forget about them? Do you send them to rehab at a cost of $15,000/mo.? Are you prepared to pay for the sizeable bureaucracy that would be needed to oversee such a program?
ReplyDeleteI have a pretty good picture of what this country is becoming, and I don't like it. I see governments at every level usurping ever more power from the citizens. I see tax and budgetary policies which are helping to turn us into a two-tier society; one tier is wealthy and flourishing while the other grows increasingly poorer. I hear prominent politicians lie to us with sincere looking faces. I see the worst polarization of my lifetime and I see powerful special interests who want to keep it that way. We may be the United States of America, but I can't think of one thing that we are united behind. We are paralyzed by blind partisanship, blind ideologies, and political gridlock. I'm seeing a lot of political grandstanding at every level, but I'm not seeing much sensible policymaking. We are in the process of national decay but we can't seem to stop ourselves. If we were united, we might have a chance to turn things around. Currently, we are too divided to accomplish much of anything.
I understand where you are coming from on the cost of drug testing and rehabilitation. It is costly and unfortunately all of these people who are on drugs and have children are unaware that it is the child that pays the price. I have not always lived in NY and I am glad for that because I was able to see how other places are. Unfortunatley we are divided no matter how much any government wants to say we arent and I feel that we keep doing the same things because it has become comfortable and therefor a habit that people refuse to learn from the past. All states within the United States are different and it is a shame that we cannot learn from eachother.Florida is one in which will begin the drug testing, how are they financially doing this? Maybe we could learn from them? In CA anyone who gets foodstamps and cash aide is required to attend a class twice a week and is required to look every day for gainful employment for 8 hrs or 15 applications filled out per day and handed in. To prove this they must have someone at that place in a management position sign a paper. This allows for them to become stable and on their own. I moved back here to raise my children but as I sit on my porch and watch the neighborhood around me compared to when I was a child I question how long we will be here until we move from this state.
ReplyDeleteAnon, Even if the cost of large scale drug testing could be justified, what would be gained from doing so? We can't even assume that public funds are being spent on drugs. Marijuana can be grown easily in some remote corner of the Brasher swamp, or any number of locations. Despite a number of incoherent Supreme Court decisions, I can see no way that such testing is not a violation of the 4th Amendment rights of all Americans. It reads: "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized".
ReplyDeleteA succession of political operatives posing as Supreme Court justices have steadily stripped American citizens of their rights. There are many laws that are on the books but are not enforced. Apparently the 4th Amendment is a right that is on the books but is not respected by the government. I hope that Rick Scott's latest attack on those rights comes before the Supreme Court. It will force them to rule that Americans who receive some kind of public assistance do not have the rights accorded to them by the Constitution. Until then, big government conservatives like Scott can bully the have nots with impunity.