Does your county really want that much money in property taxes? It might surprise you who takes the biggest bite out of that bill and how much your county does with such a small portion of it.
How is the school HALF?! How does the county function on 16% for ALL kinds of agencies...yet the school needs half? Why!? It really sucks when you don't have kids!
Really so not only am I text on my home for all of these things but the state also takes a big portion of my gross income every year. Where does that money go? This is bullshit
Funds are 100% mismanaged. Its a lie to make parents feel like they are benefiting the children while being manipulated. Kids are asked to bring donations to cover activities at school. With that much funding, you would think WTF is happening...
Doing it a lot with little? Seriously, they have to revisit this - our property taxes in Texas is a rip off to us, citizens. It's getting harder to live in Texas lately. It's poorly managed and taxes goes up every year, substatially. Very discouraging!! I can't barely afford it and have to squeeze my budget elsewhere in order to pay for it.
No one explains why in Utah (Salt Lake City) Real Estate Taxes for a home worth $350k is about $2000, while in Edinburg, Texas for a $180k home is around $4000. Both respective counties and cities do similar functions, but Texas charges twice as much. We are 'stuck' with the bad decisions (of previous tax payers agreeing to tax rates), and naturally "no one" would ever dispute these tax charges. Honestly, how could we! [collectively suing counties???]
Appreciate a response. State collects its taxes thru several other means (taxes): gasoline, automobile, and more. The money collected for the Texas real estate charges is not passed onto the state of Texas (at least, it is NOT shown on the 'paper work' provided to the owner). Hence, in my opinion, real estate tax should not be hinged on State Taxes (ie do not advertise zero $, charged for Texas State, makes it all good to charge more real estate taxes in Texas).
Counties need to provide fire and police services, and governmental necessities like administration of elections. Just about everything else, including education, can be done better by the private sector.
privatization of education leads to a much more entrenched and ossified social economic class system. if you are unhappy about paying school district taxes, usually about 1.5% or less of your assessed property value, please feel free to live in a region without a school district and then bus your children to a private school, or home school them.
there is rarely ever a simple answer and making overgeneralized statements such as yours are easily contradicted. while a public-private partnership can work effectively, there are more than an adequate number of instances where they wont. such as: rural electrification, community colleges, recreational parks, rural schools, drainage systems, water purification centers, emergency medical services, emergency response systems, and of course, garbage pickup.
Counties do not provide education. That is administered by independent school districts. You can get a list of the ways counties go to work for you in the video above starting at around 1:08. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-T8ksjSjrbfM.htmlm8s
This video was probably cute 6 years ago, but now it's robbery taking as much net funds as you are. You need to MASSIVELY increase the Homestead Exemption and reduce the property tax rate overall.
Isn't it strange that we essentially have a *communist* public school system? Sure, if you're rich you can afford _both_ private school and the ever increasing property tax bill. But not the poor and middle class - they are stuck with the hand they are dealt. Why not change it so there are school vouchers and let parents decide who earns their child's tuition? Not to mention, it's kind of a bummer that I have to pay for public education when I don't have any children. I can understand paying my fair share for roads and police - since I benefit from these goods and services. But I consider having to pay for other kids' education through a government monopoly school system as unfair. It's extortion. One last thing - it really pokes my craw that the Austin area has an insane increase in property taxes over the years and yet tens-of-millions of dollars get redistributed to other 'poorer' counties across the state. What hogwash!
school vouchers are demonstrably worse for lower income households. a better approach is to allocate property taxes on the basis of enrollment across all schools rather than by the school district. not sure where you got the notion of a communist public school system. i suspect you are echoing some talking point heard elsewhere.
How are vouchers worse for low income households? I suspect you are echoing some talking point heard elsewhere. Read my first paragraph again to understand what I mean by poor families living in essentially communist school systems. If parents can't move or afford home or private schooling for their children, they have no other options and are forced to pay for public (i.e. government) education in their district.
Joey, the statement that i dont have children thus i dont want to pay school district taxes is absurd. you benefit from a well funded school district in more ways than one - if you are a homeowner, you reap the benefit of a high property resale value if you are zoned into a good school, which is sustained by the taxes. if you are a business owner, you receive a workforce that has received a good education at minimal cost to you. if you become a parent in the future, you can rest easy that your children will receive a good education at again, no additional cost to you. not to mention that suggesting that paying for any social contract that you do not directly benefit from is absurd. why pay for medicare? why pay for social security? why pay for auto insurance? why pay for health insurance? if you want to pay only for the services you absolutely use, then i suggest you first find yourself some land, lay down some road, electrify the land with a power plant you build, launch your own satellite, write your own internet protocols, host your own server, and then connect to the internet.
as for your question about vouchers - typical vouchers would compensate about $3500-$4500 per child per year for a private education. whereas the cost of a private education is $10,000 to $14,000 a year. an overwhelming number of families will be unable to make up the difference between the two numbers and thus, education will become a commodity that is the luxury of only those with significant means. thereby furthering the inequality and reducing literacy.
100% agree that only a fraction of what they say goes to the school district. Its a lie to make parents feel like they are benefiting the children while being manipulated. Kids are asked to bring donations to cover activities at school. With that much funding, you would think WTF is happening...
What we want to know is about the other 84%... and where there is overlap in services and spending between them. ....and why nearly half of my AISD school taxes go to the State general fund.