Health & Fitness
Higher Taxes are Not the Answer
We, as citizens of this great community and great state, will NOT pay any more in taxes.... It's time for government to address the other side of the equation: spending.
“The board is told per-pupil spending will decline $370 if higher taxes aren’t passed in state votes,” reads a recent tagline in La Mesa Patch.
This is the typical, knee-jerk response that the government and public employee unions have been spouting for years. Terrible, dire consequences will be the inevitable result of not raising taxes.
One month it's that firemen will be laid off and our homes will be left to burn. The next it’s that the prison doors will be thrown open and the streets will be flooded with murderers and rapists. This month it’s that we’ll have to reduce spending at schools, sacrificing the education of our children because of our collective greed in not wanting to pay higher taxes.
It’s time the government and those leaching off of the same realize that the well is dry. We, as citizens of this great community and great state, will NOT pay any more in taxes than we already do. It’s time for government to address the other side of the equation: spending.
First, California has over 300 Boards and Commissions. Here’s a link that lists them. http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=216640441682271 I challenge anyone to tell me that all of this is necessary. How about we start disbanding and consolidating these before asking the People to dig deeper in their pockets. Here’s another link that shows how many people work where: http://www.sco.ca.gov/Files-PPSD/empinfo_demo_dept.pdf.
Second, excluding K-12 education employees, of which the state pays for part of their compensation, about ½ the state budget goes to employee compensation. (Here’s a link with some info: http://unionwatch.org/what-percent-of-californias-budget-is-employee-compensation/ )
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The state has nearly a quarter million employees. How about before asking for money, the state address it’s employee compensation and pension programs? How about we bring the state employees’ pension programs back to parity with the private sector?
As for the school board’s persistent cries for more money, there is not any data that shows more money will improve the level of education. The amount spent per pupil, adjusted for inflation, is nearly 4 times more today than it was in 1960. Is our education system today that much better than it was in the 1960’s? I don’t think so.
It’s time government as a whole learns to do more with less.
