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Jury: schools should seek more tax money

July 5, 2012

Paso Robles schools are providing an example for other county districts, and it’s not a good one, according to a report by the San Luis Obispo County Grand Jury.

Deeper budget cuts and more taxing talk is recommended by the jury to all county schools, but the panel made a point to criticize Paso Robles, which could not meet its fiscal obligations this year and was forced to file a “negative certification.” The district reduced class time by six days in order to dodge a state takeover.

The report accused Paso Robles school officials of ignoring impending financial warnings. It suggests that other county school districts take heed of Paso Robles’ example and work to correct their individual financial situations.

Grand jurors also want officials of Lucia Mara, Atascadero, Paso Robles, Shandon, and San Miguel districts to seek parcel tax for additional revenues.

The jury’s report is non-binding, and its recommendations often are ignored by study targets.


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This problem goes much deep than any of the things mentioned here.


Instead of relying on “taxes,” why don’t we just privatize all the schools and be done with it?


Then, they can compete with each other for customers in what is called a “market.”


If we do not privatize the schools, they will continue to degrade economically to the point where they will no longer be able to operate anyway; de facto privatization.


It is coming. You can see it coming.


The free market is already bypassing the public schools with flexibility, innovation, adherence to free market realities, creativity, the ability to calculate, innovate, maneuver, please their customers better and faster.


All the new “taxes” in the world cannot save the public schools or stop free markets from exposing the public schools for what they are—a dinosaur, the last bastion of socialism, and an impediment to freedom.


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I’ve recommended this before, and will continue to say so: You objectivists have a choice. We will not go backwards. There are plenty of places where your return to feudalism and medeival mediocrity exists. Just move to those places..those Randian paradises like Somalia , Iran, and Myanmar; and stop being a pain to the civilized rest of us.

Then you can be as free to be as dumb as you want.


We don’t care.


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Anybody who is not for liberty is a SERF, in mind, in body, in soul. And serfs live life backwards. Lovers of liberty live life forwards.


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OK, Miss di Plosis, please tell us what the problem is. I’m sure you know as this State ranks #46 out of 50 states. I first want you to know that I think the problem does not lie with the teachers (well, maybe some of the benefits), as I think they work very hard and have a lot to deal with. I do think the problems are many. There are the unions that want all the illegals they can get into California so that we can provide education to them all (child = money for the school = more teachers = more dues being paid). Second, all these programs that are provided for every damn problem, issue, exceptions, etc, requires another administrator (and an aide, clerk, secretary, bookkeeper, etc.) = more dues being paid to the unions. I want a school with a principal, assistant principle if more than 200 kids, a clerk, secretary and nurse. Put the teachers back in the classroom and let them do what they do best, teach our children. If your child can’t speak English (like a=our ancestors), provide Saturday classes. If your child misbehaves more than 3 times, expell them to the “drop out” school and let mom and/or dad deal with it. It is not my problem and I am sick and tired of having my child deprived of a proper education. This is not aa teacher problem, this is a policy/government problem. All the educational money is going to the wrong causes and I refuse to pay may for this type of education. I am done. Next year my children are going to private schools and I am going back to work to pay for it. I am taking responsibility for my kids and I strongly believe others need to do the same, choices, choices, choices!


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SLOBIRD: I appreciate your elaborate response. The first thing to clear up is California’s ranking. According to a CCN story posted on January 13, 2011, California schools rank 30th in nation. Whether our ranking has changed in the past year and half I do not know. That ranking is nothing to brag about, but CA has far more socio-economic challenges than almost every other state. I have no knowledge of teachers’ unions “want[ing] all the illegals they can get into California so that we can provide education to them all.” That may occur on the state level, but there is NEVER any discussion of such topics among educators on the local level. We teach whoever shows up on our rosters. Immigration policies are entirely beyond the control of school administrators or teachers. “Put the teachers back in the classroom and let them do what they do best, teach our children.” Thank you. Couldn’t agree more. I also agree with everything else you wrote, especially your emphasis on choices. As taxpayers, we deserve to have a say in how our money is spent, especially when it comes to the education of our own children. BTW, I attended a private high school, so I fully support that decision. More power to you!


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If we had a complete free market in education, we would not have to worry about “California’s ranking,” but simply the ranking of the school with which each of us, individually, is doing business at the moment.


Huge difference.


California is a huge state with millions of people, each of whom looks for different things from the schools. How meaningful can it be to any of us, individually, to have a “high” or “low” ranking for the entire state of California with its 35 million people? That’s meaningless and useless information.


We can’t get an accurate picture of a free market, price comparisons, quality comparisons, and all the rest of the info which influences our choices and preferences until there IS a free market.


Until then, we have a scene which looks like a hall of mirrors at the Circus or Carnival. Everything is so distorted that we can’t tell heads from tails, though we know something is definitely wrong.


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more furlough, period


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You left off an “s” at the end of “furlough” and a period after “period.” Perhaps there should have been more days in the school year when you attended k-12 so you could master basic spelling and punctuation. By the way, the Paso Robles district will be taking 12 furlough days next year. How many more would you recommend?


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Ana, judging from your prior posts, you’re probably a teacher. Great. I love teachers.

But just so you know, your cause is NOT helped by your snarky, condescending comments.

I actually agree w/some of your points but your rudeness to other posters here won’t win over dissenters.


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People who don’t know what they’re talking about, especially with regard to educational issues, should be prepared to defend their ill-informed and/or poorly-written comments. We’re all adults here. No excuses. I am not attempting to win over commenters who deserve and receive my verbal wrath: they are hopelessly mired in ignorance and/or deluded by conservative news sources. I am writing for readers/commenters who know that I write the truth about education from an insider’s perspective, in order to lift the morale of fellow teachers who despair when reading the aforementioned ill-informed opinions. I have NEVER encountered an adult who has spent significant time in a classroom who didn’t come away with an increased respect for what teachers do on a daily basis. We teachers deserve every cent and benefit we earn, yet we have been bearing the brunt of unfair criticisms for years now, on both the local and national levels, and we’re sick of it. Constructive criticism is always welcomed, but I have no use for armchair critics of education, especially those who can’t even spell or punctuate properly. BTW, thanks for loving teachers. We need all the support we can get these days.


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Maybe some of us don’t spell or write as well as others, but we do vote and pay taxes, and we will remember,period.


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Why is it that people who “don’t spell or write as well as others” so often have simplistic, mistake-laden opinions about complex issues and, not coincidentally, almost always vote Republican? By the way, we “DemocRATS” will continue to outnumber you on the state level and the national level.


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Did you see the letter in the Trib this morning? “The children is our future.”? Staggering. By cutting back on education, we’ll have another generation ready to be taken in by Fox and their enablers.


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More’s the pity . ^^^ Robert1^^^


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Totally agree with all who have said ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! Cities, schools, states need to do what thousands of private citizens have to every month – live on what you have. Budget, budget, and then

budget. Our schools are pathetic – this country continues to fall behind other countries in the very basic education qualities – and yet the ONLY response from the schools is give us more money.

Throwing more money at a disaster will not fix that disaster – it has been proven that it will only make it worse.


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“Our schools are pathetic” Do you mean schools on the Central Coast of California in particular or American schools in general? Please specify, providing (if you can) some objective facts to support your generalization. “To generalize is to be an idiot” (William Blake).


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Calling someone an idiot because they disagree with you…wow.

I really hope my kids are never in your classroom, Ana.


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I didn’t call PR-citizen an idiot. You made that inference. I merely pointed out that, according to one of the world’s most famous poets, a person who generalizes without providing specific facts to support his/her opinions is an idiot. PR-citizen didn’t specify what he meant when claiming that “[o]ur schools are pathetic.” That is an egregious insult to anyone in the teaching profession, especially on the Central Coast. I challenged him/her to support that claim. Unless you agree with that claim, you should welcome my challenge. Lastly, how I approach the opinions posted by adults on a website is quite different from how I approach opinions expressed by my students, as your kids would discover if they were to have me as a teacher.


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Obviously, you a teacher and have some wedded allegiance to schools staying the way they are. It is a FACT that our education system in this country, as a whole, is failing – compared to almost any other developed country. That includes schools on the Central Coast and includes the school in which you teach. That is not to say or mean that there are not some bright spots, some better than average teachers, some school districts that are better than others, and does not say that many of our teachers really would, and probably could, do a better job if rules and regulations imposed on them were less stupid. If you desire to wear blinders, quote long dead poets, and not recognize that – then that is your right.

The rest of the world; in particular Asia and India, is proceeding to eat this county’s lunch when it comes to the education needs for a highly techincal world. We, as a country, are losing – but throwing more money at it is not the answer. There needs to be some very major, earthshaking changes made.


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“earthshaking changes”?


On the contrary! Just privatize them!


It’s been done before! It can be done AGAIN!


Would it kill us to have a real free market all the way around in education? Would it be the end of the world? Come on, people, wake up!


We know what free markets can do, let it happen, make it happen!


Let’s not get lost in the mechanics of what “makes” or “doesn’t make” the public schools go, or what their “mission” is, or what silly utopian goals they might adopt for themselves!


Let’s concentrate on our own choices, means, and ends as consumers!


Let the sellers worry about the details of how to best provide the service the same way they do any other service!


Do you have to get into the mission, details, or business model of Costco, Walmart, Target, McDonald’s, The U of Phoenix, DeVry, or Home Depot?


No!


Why should you do it for the “public schools”?


It’s time for a FREE MARKET business model for the schools!


Then we can stop all this silly, wasteful bickering about details and missions and look after our interests as consumers in a free market, the ONLY kind of market which will get the job done to our satisfaction.


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I’m not sure whether you are a Libertarian “true believer” who blindly accepts that whole philosophy without question or whether you simply haven’t thought through the consequences of the actions you are proposing.


I maintain that total abandonment of a public school system would result in a return to a feudal society. Due to the inability or failure of their parents to pay for a good education, an increasing number of kids would be left out in the cold when it came to future opportunities in a world where said education is more essential to the ability to raise oneself up. Some might overcome that disadvantage but not as many as could do so if they were well educated. And, over time, it would produce a feedback cycle that would worsen the situation.


Our public schools are certainly far from flawless (I agree with SLOBIRDs general evaluation), but your solution is worse — unless you think that a large, impoverished lower class would be good for the country. Solutions that involve modifications of the existing systems may not be ideologically exciting or “sexy”, but they are more likely to not “throw the baby out with the bathwater.” (Why do so many ideologues fail to give the thorough critique of their own ideas that they give to the status quo?)


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Oh, come on. I have given this issue a great amount of thought.


Your statement is like saying that the abandonment of a public grocery store system “would result in a return to a feudal society.”


That’s absurd. As for a “feudal society,” that’s funny that you brought that up at this time. It seems to me that the elites running this country are already doing a splendid job of that. Has public education prevented an “economic collapse”? On the contrary, it helped bring it on!


A free market would UNDO all of that.


This dark, gloomy scenario that you paint should the public schools fail is a complete and total myth, a fairy tale foisted on a gullible public strictly for political reasons which have NOTHING to do with the public good and EVERYTHING to do with lust for political power of some, and their ability to control human behavior.


If other businesses can stand on their own two feet without government intervention, so can the schools.


There is no need for the government to be involved in the education market at all. Absolutely none.


In a free market, there are always choices, options, ways of getting things done. The poor will have it harder than the rest of us, but the wealthy can focus their efforts and immense wealth to educate them as well.


Or, would you argue that there is NOT ENOUGH material wealth to educate everyone who wants and needs an education?


Or, perhaps you are arguing that in a totally free market the rich would not WANT to perform this charitable social function?


I don’t believe that.


Tell that to the entrepreneurs of this country, the risk takers, the innovators, the creators. Tell them it can’t be done, and then watch them do it right before your eyes.


Anything the government does, the free market can do better.


The accomplishments of the public schools are nothing special. Their mediocrity is legendary. Their government red tape and restrictions, combined with their brain washing, have held back millions of potentially creative people and turned them off from learning.


Congratulations, they just failed the free market test for quality.


It’s time to give up the utopian dream and let the free market take over.


Government officials, GET OUT OF THE WAY and let the people make their own economic decisions about education and everything else!


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What unadulterated, palpable nonsense.

Your Von Mises, Rand, and Hayakawa blather has been so utterly disproven …in what you so openly trumpet: the free market of ideas.


It’s junk theory. Junk science. Just plain junk.

The whole concept is predicated on your own egoistic appraisal of yourselves as better than everyone else.


Well guess what? You’re wrong.


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TGE: Please explain, in detail, how a privatized school would be run/structured/managed in a free market system, and how such a system would improve the overall “product” of education for ALL students, including those with special needs.


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Ana di Plosis, in reply to your comment below,


“TGE: Please explain, in detail, how a privatized school would be run/structured/managed in a free market system, and how such a system would improve the overall “product” of education for ALL students, including those with special needs.”


In a free market, customers do not NEED to get into the detailed mechanics of how the market players produce their goods and services! Those are the concerns of the producers.


That’s what you have a free market for.


In the social sciences, it’s called “division of labor.” All societies which have risen out of the muck and the caves of primitivism have this characteristic division because it is far more efficient than simply having everyone produce all of his/her own goods and services alone.


Everybody benefits because the economy takes off like a rocket with a tremendous increase in production and the standard of living rises accordingly.


The trouble with you is that you look at life through the eyes of a social engineer, someone steeped in the natural sciences. You think that human institutions and activities (like education) have arisen only through “conscious planning.”


They have not.


You have,


“That synthetic spirit which would not recognize sense in anything that had not been deliberately constructed, that love of organization that springs from the twin sources of military and engineering practices, the aesthetic predication for everything that had been consciously constructed over anything that had ‘just grown'”….*


* F.A. Hayek, The Counter-Revolution of Science, Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 1979 [1952]), 202.


On the contrary, human institutions have arisen through “spontaneous order” (go to http://www.misesorg and study up on that).


Examples?


Take a look at how “Wall Street” got started, how “schools” got started in America, the Pony Express, the US Mail system, public libraries, the Library of Congress, the creation of roads….


This one is especially good: the origin of money. This is classic.


But this all comes from a study of Austrian economics, something you have not been exposed to as I have. It’s no wonder that we can’t understand each other.


In sum, I would estimate that Austrian economics is one of the greatest gifts to human civilization and is our last, best hope.


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Austrian economics? Have the schools in Austria been privatized? If not, why not? If so, how does the “product” of their privatized schools compare to that of their previous, public system? BTW, I visited Salzburg and Vienna in 1991. They’re two of the most beautiful cities I’ve ever seen.


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Easy on the hyperbole, Gimlet. Gosh, Austria (the nation) has a PROGRESSIVE income tax! The Austrian Tax system is a Pay-as-you-earn system, the more you earn the higher the percentage you pay taxes. Top rate 50%. http://www.worldwide-tax.com/austria/austriataxes.asp That might fix our schools. Oh, you mean Austrian School of Economics. The last 40 years of trickle down, supply side should have kicked in by now, don’t you think?


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Austrian economics does not refer to the economic system of the nation, Austria.


It refers to a branch of economics the nature of which is most clearly expressed, in its early stages, by scholars from Austria (Carl Menger, Ludwig von Mises, F.A. Hayek).


The torch was then passed to Americans such as Murray Rothbard, Walter Block, Joseph Salerno, Thomas Di Lorenzo, etc.


Follow the link for an detailed explanation:


http://mises.org/etexts/austrian.asphttp://misesorg/journals/jls/1_2/1_2_6.pdf


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if you link to a specific article that addresses the questions asked ,that would be just great, links to the home page? stop. please.


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http://misesorg/journals/jls/1_2/1_2_6.pdf


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“It is a FACT that our education system in this country, as a whole, is failing – compared to almost any other developed country. That includes schools on the Central Coast and includes the school in which you teach.”


Define “failing” for us. It is a FACT that the PISA, which compares educational achievements across the world is RIGGED against the US because every other country only reports the results of their TOP, college-bound students, whereas the US reports the results of all public school students. Our top students, nationally and locally, can and do compete very well against the top students in other countries. Not surprisingly, our top students are, with very few exceptions, from families that expect excellence from their children and from their children’s teachers. Likewise, our “bottom” students are, with very few exceptions, from families that do not expect excellence from their children or from their children’s teachers. American public schools are still producing doctors, nurses, lawyers, scientists, engineers, computer scientists, and even a few good teachers. BTW, would you want your own child/children to grow up in India or China, two of the “top” PISA nations?


Bottom line: public schools are not failing; too many students in public schools are failing to take advantage of the opportunities provided by their “free” (tax payer-funded) education.


Case in point: a former student of mine arrived from China, speaking no English as a 4th grader. He father, who still works two low-paying jobs around town, always told me, “Give her more work, more work!” Well, due to her work ethic (and her father’s), she graduated from UCLA with a Bio-Chem degree about four years ago. Meanwhile, 90% of her home-grown classmates did not earn a college degree. Of course, a college degree is not the only means to success in the US, but in most other countries, it is seen as THE means to success.


Let me leave you with one last fact: I have worked/observed in classrooms in AG, SLO, Morro Bay, Atascadero, and PR for more than 20 years, so I know what I’m talking about when I say, unequivocally, that every one of those school districts offers a top-notch education for parents who expect it and students who are willing to work hard for it. If that were not the case, then the top graduates of all of those districts would not be matriculating to the top universities in the state and country, including the Ivy League schools.


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When there is not enough money, the schools (the poor little kiddies) are always the bait, justification, for more taxes. The Super Duper Supreme Grand Jury of Fare is Fare, says this is child abuse. I support requiring these board members to be registered as Public Trust Offeners. The public has a right to know if one is living next door.


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Everytime we approve another Tax we undermine Prop 13 protections and place our homes and future

at risk.


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Get your money by cutting the top heavy over paid Administration. There is plenty of money, try managing it.


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THANK YOU Cindy.

If Paso Superintendent McNamara & all her assistant supers were running a business the way they’ve run Paso schools in the last 4-5 years…she would’ve been fired by now.

As a parent w/kids in Paso schools, I have not forgotten the district’s $1.5 million dollar “accounting error” and I do not blame the teachers for that!

I truly hope this will be McNamara’s LAST school year in charge. She’s been incompetent, arrogant, and ineffective.


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Cindy, why stop there? Let them get their money the old fashioned way; EARN it in the context of a free market instead of monopoly privileges, the way it is now.


The way it is now isn’t working! If it were, they would not be asking for all these blasted tax increases!


Privatization will make this happen. Everybody will be better off.


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We cannot and must not tax our way out of this. The problem is twofold: 1) agencies got into this problem by giving employees golden packages – high salaries, benefits, retirements and take about 30% of all revenue received, and 2) we have 50% of the people paying taxes and 50% using and wanting more. We now provide breakfast, lunch, afterschool care, snacks, dinner, transportation, etc. We need to get back to the basics of education, stop the role of parenting and if people want children (let me say this loud and clear) take care of them. I don;t want to support your family anymore, I have my own!!!!


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SLOBIRD: Exactly which school district on the Central Coast is offering “employees golden packages”?

And how do you define “high salaries”? As compared to salaries earned by police and correctional officers, who can earn a small fortune in overtime? And what is so “golden” about teachers’ “benefits”? Health,

vision, and dental care are part of the compensation that teachers receive, and for which they also pay per visit. Lastly, what is “golden” about teachers’ “retirements”? Most teachers work well over 30 years,

educating the children of their community, and, in return, they are given a modest % of their salary so that

they can continue to live (comfortably, not extravagantly) in the community that they served for three

decades or more. Also, in case you didn’t know, money is deducted every month from a teacher’s

paycheck and put into his/her retirement account. The bottom line is that teachers earn every cent of their salaries, benefits, and retirements. If the public had to pay teachers for all the overtime they work, then you’d have something to complain about. As it stands, your future silence on that topic would, indeed, be golden.


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I don’t know the details of teachers’ retirement packages for local school districts so I may be off-base with this. What is “excessive” about retirement packages for many public employees in this state is one thing — “Defined Benefits” programs.


You may feel that you have a right to a pre-specified retirement income but that is not the way the world works economically. In a sliding economy, that money has to come from somewhere and when investments aren’t earning the returns needed to produce it, the obligation falls to the rest of the tax paying public and many of us are already suffering from our own economic losses. Change your retirement plans to split the actual investment proceeds equitably without requiring that the rest of us make up the difference between those proceeds and the ones you want/expect. Then you will get a lot more support.


There will always be a few brainwashed ignoramuses that bill believe anything the rabble-rousers on the right tell them but there are also plenty of us who would like to support teachers if we could afford to do so. In my opinion you are not otherwise overpaid and most of you do the best you can. I have a couple other issues with teachers unions (especially on the state-wide & national levels), but they are not as critical nor are they even unique to teachers.


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“Change your retirement plans to split the actual investment proceeds equitably without requiring that the rest of us make up the difference between those proceeds and the ones you want/expect. Then you will get a lot more support.” That is completely beyond the control of individual teachers. A public school teacher must pay into STRS, which determines what the DBs will be from year to year. STRS assets do rise and fall with the economy, as they are heavily invested in the stock market. The bigger point is that, without a DB program, many teachers would never be able to retire. Do you really want teachers (not to mention police officers and fire fighters) hanging on to their jobs well into their 70s or 80s–just so they can make ends meet? Oh, that’s right–we should eliminate tenure so teachers could be fired when they reach the top of the pay scale and become too big a burden on the taxpayers. BTW, why is it that we always seem to find the money to send our military to other countries to fight for their liberties, but we always have a problem with fully funding the education of American children from year to year, leaving them subject to the fluctuations in our “sliding economy”?


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AMEN!!!!


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“districts to seek parcel tax for additional revenues” funny how they always want to put it on the land owner instead of the entire citizenship. I am against raising taxes period, but if there is going to be a increase put it on EVERYONE in the form of a sales tax, everybody consumes at one store or another.

But to continue to put it on land owners is discriminatory.


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Hmm let me see. I pay a $400 dollar a year tax where I live in Paso for the street light and parkway. I will pay eventually a tax to built the new water treatment plant. I will pay a tax soon to pay for the new $50 million sewer treatment upgrade. I pay a tax for the (I think it was 20 mi.) bond for the high school voted a few years ago. They want to put a 1/2 tax on the Nov. ballot in Paso. And now the Grand Jury says that seeing as I am a properity owner I should pay even more tax. To the members of the Grand Jury I say shove it up your A$$!!!!


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P.S. oh and for anyone that wants to troll that I don’t like or don’t pay my fair share of taxes, we pay $5000.00 a year in properity taxes now, even before MOST of the above even kicks in. ENOUGH ALREADY!! Balance your books or get your revenue elsewhere!!!!!!!!!!


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Well, pardon me, but we told you so.

All of the stated public improvements take funding. So do necessary services . Excuse me, they just do.

When the fairest mechanism for collecting taxes in order to pay for these projects and continuing maintenance , a progressive income tax , is so diminished through legislative folly; where did you think the money would come from ?


So, I agree with your last comment: ” …get your revenue elsewhere ” . Raise the rates on incomes above $250,000. Apply an in-state tariff on those corporations ( like Apple ) that do most of their business and intellectual property here in California, but claim residence and/or profits in nearby states or even other ‘tax-haven’ countries.


The alternative is to live in a dump with bad roads, bad water, open sewers, and surrounded by uneducated dummies.


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Um pardon me. I didn’t state yet sales tax I pay on items. State income tax, Fed income tax, car tax. There is even more money!! Should I go on?? Save me the where do you think the money comes from smart alk talk. I KNOW trust me!! They have more than ENOUGH from what I stated earlier and the above here. It is time for the Fed to live on a BUDGET!!


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Well, now you’re getting to the heart of it !

See…every time any of these uber-rich or their paid mouthpieces drone on about reducing taxes, they know it will stir up the rabble to vote against their own interests.


What you are realizing , is the impact of ‘marginal’ rates. A 40% marginal rate for the top 5% amounts to a large sum; but they still live like millionaires with expensive cars and other toys, multiple houses, etc.

A 40% marginal rate for middle class and below really hurts, and can have life defining results. Hard decisions and sometimes impossible ones are inflicted.


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Please be more accurate with your facts!


1. We have the New [ Temporary] State Sales Tax on the ballot in November.


2. Please do not forget our good friends at Cuesta College who have a New Bond

coming in our future.


We all need to Stand Our Ground and Vote NO on all these new bonds-fees-taxes.


With reductions in pensions,benefits, and salaries they will not need more taxes.


90% Pensions at age 50 will sink our State and Local Governments. The sad fact is they will never have enough tax money.


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We had enough before Prop 13.


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Just to clarify, teachers must work until they are at least 60 (and usually until they are 62) to max out their retirement. BTW, “with reductions in pensions, benefits, and salaries” society will have an even harder time luring top-notch college grads into the teaching profession. Of course, that’s not perceived as a problem by people who don’t believe in the value of public education anyway.


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Want to make it clear that I respect teachers and public employees. The problem is that the middle class and seniors has been devastated by the economic downturn and are struggling each day to meet our financial obligations.


The point many taxpayers are making is that the tax bank is broke.


We just no longer have funds to pay for all these things and we need to find ways to reduce the scope of government services and costs. The recent bankruptcy in Stockton, and pension vote in San Diego, is just the start of a new wave of fiscal

problems for local government and school districts.


Most residents support our schools and public safety [excluding excessive benefits] and believe they should be adequately funded. It is unfortunate that they are being “used” to try and pass a sales tax increase.


When we Vote Against the Sales Tax Increase, it is not a vote against teachers or public education. It is a vote against excessive taxation and a state that has their priorities upside down!


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Thank you for the clarification!


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And the democRATS are not done with you yet-


California DemocRAT Senate backs bill to shield many illegal immigrants from deportation –

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/07/06/california-senate-backs-bill-to-shield-many-illegal-immigrants-from-deportation/?test=latestnews#ixzz1zrUVxku2


Five Big Ways ObamaCare Will Tax Your Finances

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2012/07/05/five-major-obamacare-taxes-that-will-hit-your-wallet-in-2013/

My health insurance has gone up 12% a year for the last 3 years, no coincidence with obumercare??


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Fox news. Fox news. “while Fox News viewers were the least informed. In fact, FDU poll results showed they were even less informed than those who say they don’t watch any news at all.” http://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrapoza/2011/11/21/fox-news-viewers-uninformed-npr-listeners-not-poll-suggests/


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My problem with Fox News viewers (& conservative talk radio listeners) isn’t so much that they are uninformed as that they are badly misinformed and are not hesitant to shout their ignorant views with the fervor of a religious prophet. There are some on the other side too, but they are either not as loud or are not often shouting where I can hear them.


Also, once in a while they have legitimate points. If they would take the time and trouble to really understand issues before speaking up, they might actually gain enough credibility to be considered on those issues.


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My health care went up even more than that before “Obamacare,” I had to drop it after being laid off for a couple of months. The new mandated Health Care System shares many common flaws with the older voluntary ones. It may be even more expensive (unknown at this time, but likely) but it also started solutions to some abuses the big private insurance companies used to cut costs by screwing policy holders. The problems with the entire health care “system” in this country require a lot of different solutions to address no matter who is paying the bills.


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