Giving my 2% on education

Oh, yeah, that's supposed to be two cents. But 2% is what our school board is currently considering investing in our school district. A 2% increase "on the levy" comes to about $3 a month, or $40 a year for a modest home in Averill Park.

The joke is that the board will ask teachers like myself (and our board is not alone in such requests state wide) to "share the pain" so that we can save jobs. This would mean some sort of freeze on salary or other concessions for which we will be offered the empty promise of jobs saved somewhere in the district, and for only one year.

It sounds like my Ayn Rand factor is getting a little too high here, but I'm going to say it anyway- what's in it for me? The argument is a moral one that implies that when the going gets tough, we all pitch in to help out. Frankly, when these requests come out, we are not :all" pitching in to help, With a consistent anti-tax myopia, people look for the wrong mechanism to get us to all pitch in. Taxes are created for this very purpose.

The United States started federal taxes when our founding fathers found they could not afford to protect us from invasion or stop the pirates of the Barbary Coast or purchase a really nice piece of real estate to expand into without everyone pitching in a little. But in our current political arena, even so called Democrats like Cuomo are far more interested in helping and protecting millionaires than they are in getting us all to pitch in.

Yes, I know the rent and the taxes are already too damn high! But does that justify asking others to pay your taxes for you. When you ask people to give up their fairly negotiated salaries and working conditions without some remuneration, you are simply trying to redistribute my wealth to someone else who isn't willing to pay taxes.

Let's say a union gives up its new raise for a year. That might be a one or two thousand dollar hit. Some of us can deal with this without trouble, but for many others, this could mean losing a house or restricting the choice of schools their kid goes to. Of course, the other option is to increase revenuesl. The best way to do this is to establish a tax. Taxes (if there weren't so many exemptions and loop holes) are a fair and equitable way to share our burdens wiith each other.

If you want to save your schools, consider a %10 tax increase. Now we're talking about a $20 a month sacrifice for anyone in a modest home. That's about $240 a year. How many people living in decent homes with decent jobs will find it impossible to come up with $240? That's about 6 tanks of gas. That's 4 less dinners out in a year.

Of course, we haven't even considered the financial impact on those who are laid off. And for every lay off, that's one less person who can buy that gas or eat out at a local restaurant. If we increase taxes for everyone, we may still have enough to go out to eat, but those who are laid off are going to be eating pasta