Could not agree more. Here in Westchester County, we have a town tax, school tax, and a county tax. There are sewer taxes, refuse district taxes, water taxes, automobile registration taxes, automobile insurance taxes, gas taxes, oil (heating and vehicle) taxes, a myriad of taxes on our electricity, telephone and cable bills, not to mention hotel taxes, sales taxes, mortgage recording taxes, taxes on commercial rental leases (in NYC), and the list goes on. The fascist governor put a 2% tax cap on budget increases but included no relief on the mandate side of the expenses—the pension and healthcare insurance for municipal workers and medicaid. Towns are being forced to cut their DPW, police, fire and other essential services while teachers unions keep getting more and more money. They are the biggest donors to politicians. In one town in the county, the school budget is $500 million dollars. They refuse to allow their books to be audited by the town council. The council is suing to audit them. They love illegal alien students because they get money for each one that is enrolled in the schools. Teachers unions are bankrupting the local governments.
“Teachers unions are bankrupting the local governments.”
Many Americans (especially those that aren’t crushed as badly as us here in NJ by teachers’ unions) have no understanding of these unions. They are the leadership and owners of the Democratic Party (not “supporters” of it, or “represented by it”); if you have any doubts watch how many times Obama plugs them even when it is completely irrelevant. In discussions about cutting costs their puppet spouts silliness about 100,000 new teachers (he calls for this repeatedly); they are parasites on the taxpaying public and oppress them endlessly. THAT is the real reason why Dems have the welfare vote in the bag; it is a population that has never paid a teacher in their lives, and have no intention of ever doing it.
The only people I know who are better off then four years ago are public school teachers; they insulate themselves with raises that far outpace the inflation their Dem puppets won’t even acknowledge, and here in NJ they are directly responsible for a large number of foreclosures. It is difficult to sell a modest $250K house in a so-so neighborhood when it comes with a property tax bill of nearly $1,000 per month, especially as more and more of the population is working as temps or part-time.