Posted on 11/22/2005 8:20:11 PM PST by FairOpinion
Texas school districts illegally tax property owners to pay for public education and the state must find a new way to fund schools by June 1 or classrooms will remain closed in the fall, the Texas Supreme Court ruled Tuesday.
Texas' highest civil court ruled that the property taxes for schools have become an unconstitutional statewide property tax and charged lawmakers with repairing the $30 billion funding system. State funding would be stopped if the deadline isn't met.
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
I prefer Sales Taxes. That way, once purchased, you know you are finished. Taxes paid and it really belongs to you forever.
Actually you can't even dream it. The Supreme Court can find LEGISLATION unconstitutional, but it can't find the constitution itself unconstitutional. The income tax comes to us via constitutional amendment which themselves become part of the constitution itself.
I thought judicial activism was making law/rights where there was none.
This sounds like it was another attempt at "Robin Hood" financing. Having well off districts give money to poorer districts. Take from the rich, give to the poor. From each according to ability, to each according to need.
Maybe the opponents should be frank and call it Marxist Financing.
"Rather amazing that a self-labeled 'Libertarian' would be whining about tollways."
I have heard this same argument for Perry's grand government planning experiment. I have one simple rejoinder: WHAT DO TEXANS PAY 20 CENTS A GALLON OF GAS TAX FOR NOW?
Now, if toll roads were being put in solely on the basis of tolls, if there were no taxes funding road building already going to the state, or these gas taxes were removed, that would be one thing. But the roads in the state of Texas are already funded--the money is simply being spent elsewhere.
User fees are great. I am fine with pure toll roads. But I come from a state with lots of toll roads and a ridiculous gas tax that was supposed to be for building roads, Florida. That life experience means that I know well, once a toll road is put in, it never pays for itself--it pays for other projects and the money that is taxed from the people to pay for roads is spent on social programs and mass transit. Toll roads never stop being toll roads, the tolls are simply used for more government programs, just as gas taxes never go to build roads to the level they're supposed to.
Further, Perry's PR team notwithstanding, if Texans wanted toll roads, someone would have built them using private money to buy the land. Instead he's condemning a ton of farmland that private roadbuilders would love to buy cheap but can't or won't, and he'll simply GIVE it to the private roadbuilders for years, in exchange for them building a road on it that Texans will pay for! Sure, it is a visionary project. The problem is that it is also one predicated on his ability to plan better than the people of the state, and rape landowners through condemnation to achieve a private pass-through. And the people of Texas didn't vote a Republican in to plan for them, to manage their affairs for them, but to keep government small and STOP it from planning for them. And they sure didn't vote for Kelo II.
What Perry's plan is all about is avoiding using the money the way it should be, or cutting programs where it shouldn't be, and shifting more taxes onto the road users who have paid the state already to build and maintain roads it ain't building or maintaining.
Good point.
Obviously Congress is not about to repeal the 16th Amendment.
Let's pray.
[T]o compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors, is sinful and tyrannical.
-- Thomas Jefferson
That's about the size of it. Ever-more centralizing authority and ever less freedom as the Big Mommy State doles out little sops to social conservatives, big sops to Leftists, and gradually enslaves us all. . .
You got that right. I believe most people would prefer a sales tax to a property tax. I know my wife and I would. We pay over four thousand dollars a year in property tax with no kids in school. There is little chance that we would pay that much in sales taxes as we are currently watching our expenses closely.
Cool. Only those who utilize government education should be forced to pay for it. We homeschool- I would LOVE to see Florida follow this logic.
That's what they do in Jersey for the Abbott districts. With the money my township collects in property taxes, everyone there could be cheuffered to school.
First thing to do is amend the Texas constitution, I suppose, to change that "diffusion of knowledge" clause -- make the obgligation to education local, not state-wide.
Second, districts have to cut fat.
Third, give parents choice to transfer among school districts.
Fourth, talk about funding.
False dichotomy. There are lots of other choices. Tariffs (the Constitutional solution, by the way), sales taxes, maybe user fees (which vouchers would render somewhat).
I agree.
Pubbies need to vote out RINOs in the coming elections. May I suggest they start with Chris Harris and Florence Shapiro?
"False dichotomy. There are lots of other choices. Tariffs (the Constitutional solution, by the way), sales taxes, maybe user fees (which vouchers would render somewhat)."
States are allowed to charge tariffs? I did not know that.
I'm not so sure this is a good trend. This is specifically designed to take control of schools out of the hands of local people.
I'd be glad to fund schools with a local sales tax, because that, too, would be under local control.
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