Thread: Would you support...

a 1 cent sales tax increase (only temporarily) if it meant that there wouldn't need to be money cut from education spending?



just curious to get opinions for once from people not of similar ideology (sort of) then I on the idea.

In theory yes. In reality it would never end, and if it worked one cent would suddenly be fifteen.

No tax increase is ever temporary.

Also,we should be spending less on education. Nobody wastes taxpayer dollars more than schools.

state sales tax? or federal?

and does this beg the assumption that all education spending is justified, no matter what?

Like, all defense spending is justified, no matter what?

or all road building spending is justified, no matter what?

Originally Posted by ...bigdog...

state sales tax? or federal?

state

Originally Posted by TheTip

Originally Posted by dex71

No tax increase is ever temporary.

Also,we should be spending less on education. Nobody wastes taxpayer dollars more than schools.

Really, cuz my school district is poor as hell, they fired about 10 teachers this past year and we are going to have about 36 students per teacher. Our computer lab has Pentium 3 computers, in my opinion schools need more money.

if that was how budgets were decided....then we should just give up on being a successful society.

How much are your teachers being paid? What about consolidating facilities? How many students are in your district? what is the teacher/student ratio? Demographics changing? Population shifts? Property tax base?

What else is the school district spending it's money on? Hybrid bio diesel school buses and solar powered football stadium lights? Were there any layoffs in administration, similar to the teacher layoffs? how much are those in the ad building being paid relative to teachers?

There's a lot of stuff that goes into what the district is going to do with it's money. And given the propensity for teachers to turtle up into their unions and push budget decisions around.... I doubt their positions were let go lightly.

You can't just say "oh, they fired a teacher, omg we need more money".

our sales tax is 8.25%.

I say, if you don't like what your district is doing, then go to your districts meetings, and elect a new school board. Or a new city council. Or a new tax collector/assessor. Or a new mayor. Or someone who understand's your cities problems, and will have a better idea on how to fix them.

But imagining that people living in different cities, much less states, know what will solve problems (like money and taxes) better than local goverments.....that's just basic constitutionality and states rights stuff.

The country's education problems are not simply financial.
Throwing money at education has never helped.
As a percentage of the GDP, federal education spending has hovered around 1% of the GDP since 1966. www.usgovernmentspending.com
There is no need for a VAT for education at the federal level.
Should the individual states (who are responsible for education anyway) choose to increase their sales taxes, that is up to the voters in those states.