Dawn of the Geeks

We got an e-mail notifying us that our taxes related to local schools are going up over 800%. There was a meeting last night regarding the issue and of course quite a few people showed up. The simple reason more people didn’t show up is because the current taxes are $20 a year and they’re going up to about $160 a year. And since this is “for the children” who would seriously complain about $140 a year?

The reason I had a problem with it is simple: public schools are a money pit. There isn’t enough money in the world to satisfy the public school system. And the best part is that although they talk about wanting better teachers, little to no money goes to paying teachers more. Arizona State raised it’s tuition 40% in one year violating the state constitution (not that our legal system cared of course) so they could pay teachers more but instead of paying teachers more they simply hired more adjunct faculty: professionals in their field, not in the classroom. Existing terrible teachers weren’t fired. Existing good teachers didn’t get a raise.

First and foremost for schools is buying nice stuff. Like computers in every classroom (or worse, for every student) that aren’t actually needed. We’ve had smarter students come out of two room school houses using paper and pencil only. I started my education in the midwest where they teach Junior High students how to program in Logo and how to type. In AZ they don’t teach students how to type and computers are used to browse MySpace. The computers I learned those skills on were Apple II’s which were ancient tech but the skills learned apply to any modern computer. Money grubbing schools don’t get that. They “need” the latest and greatest. They can’t buy the cheap $400 Dell computer or get hand me downs from universities and colleges. No, they need expensive laptops that can’t be cheaply repaired or upgraded. Monitor go bad? There’s $1000 for a new laptop instead of $200 or less for a new monitor. Motherboard fried? That’s $1000 for a new laptop instead of $100 for a new motherboard.

And that’s why I don’t support giving schools more money. If they didn’t waste the money we were already giving them they wouldn’t have to nickel and dime us further.

As far as the 800% tax increase, we’re actually getting a tax decrease. The way school taxes work (at least in AZ) is that there is a base tax rate and then a variable rate that is applied on top of that which is capped. Last year the school wanted $2.5 million above and beyond what the county gave them. This year they want $1.75 million. The 800% figure comes from what the base tax rate is. If the school didn’t want anything above the base rate we’d be paying about 0.1% instead of 0.8% of our property taxes towards the school system.

With that in mind it really isn’t that big of a deal. The issue is however that property taxes are going way up. Because it’s a brand new area most people’s homes were appraised as empty lots. This year they’re being appraised with the home on the land. But the country gives the schools a fixed amount. It doesn’t matter that the county is bringing in millions more dollars. The school can’t get it’s 1.75 million from existing property taxes. They still have to go above the dollar amount given by the county and apply extra taxes to the citizens.

Since the school system is doing what it can to keep taxes low which is far better than most school districts, the real issue falls at the feet of the county. They should be covering the expenses of the school with the increased revenue rather than still demanding even more money from the citizens.

And this is why you never vote “yes” to a tax increase no matter what it’s for. When a citizen is strapped for cash they have to find ways to cut costs by eliminating wasteful spending. When a government entity is strapped for cash they can just demand more. By voting “no” to tax increases you limit their money grubbing little hands and force the government to be more efficient. Oh they’ll fuss and whine and go on about the children and threaten to not do things. But just like you do with children, you have to stay firm and tell them “no.”

The simple fact is, if they won’t do something because they don’t have the money then it wasn’t worth doing anyway. Anything that’s worth doing they have the money to do.