Please vote yes for Measure C and our Kids in High School!!
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Measure C will:
Measure C will:
- Cost property owners $8 per month
- Expire after four years
- Provide an exemption to senior citizens
- Maintain and improve core academics:
- Continue funding for:
- Computer Tech
- Vocational Training
- Help attract and retain highly qualified and experienced teachers
- Maintain smaller class sizes
- Protect arts, music, and after school sports
- Be spent only in classrooms - not on administrators’ salaries
Submitted by Mike O'Neill
73 comments:
Thanks for posting this, Mike. (You beat me to it!)
Please, everyone who wants to prevent Sacramento's education-funding cuts from decimating Pacifica's high schools, click on the link at the top of this page, then the "I'm a Supporter" button, to register your support for (or endorse, if you choose) Measure C.
The website also includes several video links, FAQs, and information on how to get involved in the campaign. We need all the help we can get, and will appreciate all offers to volunteer!
Thanks again.
Really?
Really!
This is a cause I can sign on to. Jefferson is woefully underfunded by the state. Unfunded mandates from Washington and Sacramento eat into what limited funds we already have. Unlike another plea for help, this is one that is truly an investment in our community. Please support this measure and urge your friends and neighbors to do the same.
Jim, as you know being underfunded by the state does mean we are not already paying for that funding. How about, for educational purposes you, Laurie of Mike provide some sort of chart that shows how much of our property taxes currently are dedicated to secondary education. I'm sure you already know that only 11% of the property taxes we pay comes back to us as city general fund monies, so what proportion of our property taxes are forwarded to the local high school district?
Sorry DOES in first sentence should read DOESN"T, my apologizes.
Todd,
I don't have a chart like that, but will see if I can up with something. In the meantime, consider this:
A few years ago, our schools were getting almost $7,000 per student. That was still less than half of what some school districts in other parts of San Mateo County were getting, but we managed to "do more with less", despite that inequity, hoping that a turnaround would come and that we'd get through it.
Instead, Pacifica's funding is now down to about $5,000 per student - an almost 30% reduction.
Our teachers have taken paycuts, class sizes have increased, counsellors have been laid off, school transportation has been all but eliminated, and everything from utility costs to paper usage and book purchases have been scaled back to a bare minimum. The only cuts left to make will have a detrimental impact on core educational programs.
We can - and should - be angry with the politicians in Sacramento who got us into this mess, but that won't prevent these cuts. I wish there was another way, but voting to pay $8/month per household is the most practical thing we can do to prevent Sacramento's mistakes from hurting our schools and our kids and their futures.
I understand Laurie, and I agree with you concerning Sacramento. As an aside I had a great conversation years ago with the Weidermeyer (spelling) PSD board member and changed from a no vote to a yes vote. looking forward to the info.
no thanks. I will vote a vert strong NO.
From the TEXT aka impartial analysis:
The stated purposes of the special tax are: preserving excellence in core academic programs; minimizing class size increases and layoffs; providing training programs; protecting arts and music instruction; reducing budget cut impacts; and providing independent financial audits of revenues/expenditures. The proceeds shall be used for these purposes unless the Board of Trustees determines in any given year that changes in student population, fiscal constraints, or other changes in state or federal funding make doing so infeasible or inadvisable. In any event, the proceeds will only be used for the purposes listed above.
Blaming, and then, letting Sacramento "get away with it", and then, asking the tax payers to hand over more money, to me, is, like not leaving the spouse that continues to beat you. I'm not that type of person to even have a relationship with a wife beater or a democrat.
Vote No on all tax increases. Vote for Freedom.
oh brother
You are no brother of mine.
that's a relief
Thanks for posting this information Mr. O'Neill and Mr. Frater (in spirit). Educating our future workforce is an important and worthwhile investment. Our elders sacrificed and invested in their future i.e. us. Pay it forward!!
Why is Jefferson not on this list of financially troubled school districts?
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2011/03/22/state/n111651D69.DTL&tsp=1
http://www.cde.ca.gov/fg/fi/ir/first1011.asp
Measure C is a large part of the effort to keep us off that list! (Careful financial management is another large part.)
Better to avoid getting named on that list in the first place, than to allow ourselves to get on it and then have to undertake the difficult process of digging our way out.
Hi Laurie/Mike,
Mike posted a document on RIPTIDE yesterday. I'm still asking for a simple number as the document is about as easy to understand, to me anyway, as an annual shareholders report.
i thought the question I asked above would be easy to answer. I imagined any routine annual audit of the high school district would have it as a revenue entry of some kind.
So here goes again: What percentage of our property taxes goes to the HS district?
As you know the city gets 11% of the property taxes we generate, or 11 cents for every property tax dollar collected.
Perhaps an easier number to supply us here is the dollar amount the HS District receives from the state agency that distributes property tax revenues?
Above Laurie mentioned the HS District currently receives $5000 per student. Maybe you can just give us the current enrollment numbers of students and we can then multiply that by 5000.
As a couple that wasn't blessed with children we heartily support education and are glad we contribute. However the two of you have been school board members for a long time and I'd think this sort of number would be at your finger tips.
Looking forward to your speedy reply Laurie/Mike.
According to the "Secured Property Tax Information" form that comes with every property tax bill, school districts received 45 percent of property taxes in 2009-10.
But there is a caveat in the form: "Although schools continue to receive the largest portion of your tax dollars, changes in State laws have reduced their share."
Cities are shown as having received 17 percent of tax dollars for that period.
Going back in my files, I still have these same forms for tax years 02-03, and 05-06.
Schools were receiving 65 percent in both those years, and there is no caveat about the State taking away.
Cities received 12 percent in both those years.
Quite a different picture.
Todd,
I hadn't forgotten about your request, but have actually spent many hours trying to come up with a meaningful response. I keep remembering that I know someone who wrote his doctoral thesis on CA school funding -- and thinking that trying to boil that down to a simple chart or a paragraph or two is virtually impossible! If you want more info than you find here, give me a call and I'll be happy to try to answer your questions.
San Mateo County (in 2005/06 - the latest period for which I could find a lot of detail) got 58% of it's funding from property taxes, and spent 27% of its total budget on education. You could say that that's the equivalent of 46.6% of the property tax total, but to then interpret that as applying directly to Pacifica or to PSD or JUHSD would be worse than misleading. Some school districts (Woodside, for example) were getting about $14,000 per student per year back then, almost all of it coming from property taxes. Pacifica, meanwhile, was getting about $7,000 per student, but only about half of that was from property taxes, with the rest coming from the state (which makes up funding to a minimum level for school districts whose property tax receipts fall below a pre-designated minimum).
(Incidentally, in response to Matt's post about state funding deferrals, much of the state funding that hasn’t been cut completely keeps being pushed back to the next school year - to make the state's budget look better, but giving school districts a cash flow problem. And yes, it affects JUHSD too, though not quite so severely as PSD.)
The intricacies of our school funding are way beyond anything that anyone would want to read here (and even further beyond my level of knowledge). Frankly, they should scrap the current, horrendous, school funding formulas and start again! But the bottom line is that Pacifica's schools have had the short end of the funding stick for a long time. State budget cuts in the last few years have had an enormous impact on our schools (while hardly impacting those, like Woodside, that rely on property taxes for almost 100% of their funding). It's not property taxes that are the problem - the blame lies squarely in Sacramento and on its budget cuts to education, and it's that problem that Measure C addresses: Funds raised by Measure C will be locally controlled and cannot be touched by Sacramento. Whether you regard it as $96/year per household, or $8 a month or 26c a day, it will save our high schools from being decimated (or worse) by Sacramento's budget cuts, and I urge you to protect our schools and our students by voting Yes on Measure C.
You know, it may not be legal to impose a parcel tax that is one flat rate per parcel.
"The trial court correctly ruled that the City parcel tax on property owners which is in issue here was unconstitutionally imposed and collected, because the tax is a property tax, not a valid excise tax, and was not levied according to the assessed value of the property." (Thomas v. City of East Palo Alto, 53 Cal.App.4th 1084 (1997).)
Here's the thing, guys. We have no kids, never have, and yet are grateful that we contribute to school funding. But as a couple that has never "taxed" the school system, to be asked to give even more is a wee bit unfair, to my thinking. Seniors have an exemption and, to be frank, I think childless couples should have an exemption, too.
Whether it's local gubbermint, school board gubbermint, county gubbermint, state or federal gubbermint, the one constant in all this gubbermint is you think we just owe you more.
It would be nice to see some empathy toward the public from all these gubbermint agencies rather than this plantation-like expectation to joyfully increase our taxes. If we had ever had children, we would absolutely go for this tax, but how can you really justify asking couples like us to contribute even more when we already contribute so much without "taxing" the system financially at all?
Laurie, you grew up in Scotland. I spent my formative years in Ireland. We both know what education really is and that it doesn't take more money to be excellent. So what are we talking about here? As you've pointed, out this is a preemptive tax of some kind to stave off some sort of future financial threat.
I don't know, fellas. You are not convincing me so far. Saying an explanation is just too complicated to understand and yet advocate to tax us more is a little like Benny Hill talking to Black Adder.
If you think using the term "gubbermint" is clever or funny in any way, you apparently never taxed any educational system anywhere.
the tax is only to stave off the inevitable. Let the ship sink, too many holes in it to save it.
I don't have any kids either, but I think investing in the future, for those kids are the next generation of doctors, lawyers, nurses, carpenters, etc. will benefit me in the long run. I might need the doctor for health care, the lawyer to keep my estate in good order, and the carpenter to build the ramp into my home so I can age in place.
It's worth the $8/month to me even if I don't "tax" the educational system, I will be grateful someone was lucky enough to do so. The system is broken, and I don't know how to fix it so this is the best option I can see at this point.
"the tax is only to stave off the inevitable. Let the ship sink, too many holes in it to save it."
- I think people on this blog have this attitude when it comes to the fire assessment too. But I bet you will be whining and bitching when the ship actually starts to sink, like when the city has to cut a million bucks from police and fire services.
A million bucks cut from the fire budget would equal 4 battalion chiefs.
Various Anons; it easily appears you feel owed by the community and think nothing of asking for more.
Since the JUHSD revenue is a percentage of the wealth generated by the community at large, decided by whatever governing principles the legislature uses to calculate, your beef should be with them, not the lowly parcel owners who are already dealing with their overall finances without the benefit of an elected board that can create a ballot measure to further tax someone else instead of working the problem internally like the rest of us.
JUHSD fortunes are tied to us parcel owners. If our fortunes are down, JUHSD will be down also due to the math of economics. It's been that way historically and a part of the civic landscape for as long as I've been alive, anyway.
What a great civics, economics, and history program the JUHSD could be teaching it's students because of all this worldwide wealth-shifting taking place. But instead the JUHSD decided on a "you parcel owners owe us just because we say so," lesson.
The lesson I'm learning here is the JUHSD feels owed. I don' like this lesson. I want you to teach me a different lesson using a different curriculum.
What better way to prepare students to be contributing adults than to see their school system act like contributing adults instead of needy separatists.
It's not about the $8 a month, it's about the whiney attitude that is barely if at all covering over a latent class-"ist" mentality that is completely devoid of any empathy for the ones generating the wealth that the JUHSD is living on. We are all hurting, that';s why the JUHSD revenues are down. There is no more blood in the stone various Anon's.
Obviously the way things have been run doesn't work. For a variety of reasons, it just doesn't work. People who have said 'let the ship sink because it's beyond saving' are just recognizing that situation, that failure, and hoping that if we stop propping up all these failed systems--not just the educational system- we may have an opportunity to begin anew. Scary? Full of unknowns? Oh yes, but it is an alternative that is gaining support. There are limits and many people have reached theirs.
ok then. let's let the school system and the city collapse. I've always wondered what it would be like to live in a 3rd world country. we'll all find out together.
ummmm.....we are there. Over 40 million on food stamps. 13% of U.S. homes are vacant. 27% unemployment. Infrastructure has crumbled, i.e. gas lines exploding, road erosion. Californians are in denial. Have fun. Protests across the nation. Austerity measures in place. Oh , you ain't seen nothing yet.
Great Banking Collapse of 2008; a Great Recession which has thrown millions from their homes and tens of millions out of jobs; a “hope” and “change” President named Barak Obama who promised you a “new deal”; you have a new and hated National Health Care Bill that the majority of you don’t want and you want us to give you more money? Piss off!
The last thing I would ever want to hurt are our kids. People during the 50's and 60's were kind enough to fund my public education. I will support the schools, but nothing else!
Todd if I didn't know you better I would have interpreted your "whiney attitude that is barely if at all covering over a latent class-"ist" mentality that is completely devoid of any empathy for the ones generating the wealth" as a comment about the phoney enviros who block all revenue generating development in Pacifica.
Afterall "they've got theirs" and with their council majority they continue to attempt to force what's left of the wealth generators in Pacifica to subsidize their selfish lifestyles.
Unfortunately after trying everything else, I think the only option left is to let this city grind to a halt, wait for the rats to jump ship and then start re-building.
Very sad. Very painful.
Mike, I understand your thoughts. No one wants to hurt our high school kids eduction or future. It's just bad timing. If we were flush like five years ago before the banks et al decided robbing was their future none of this would be happening. It's a shame, and it isn't going away anytime soon.
We all, private and public employee's need to join together like never before but it can't just be us that are paying for it. If the public sector needs to take anywhere from 5% to 20% pay cuts they can join the club of the rest of us that are currently doing so. A little bit of empathy from the public sector would sure go a long way with me.
Anon, 5:09pm, "the sky is falling", or history revision? I'm not saying your statistics are wrong, I'm just saying prove your statistical claims.
Where are you getting the 27% unemployment rate? Under-employed, no longer eligible? Try 8.9%, US Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Food stamps for adults in the USA is roughly 5 to 6 percent. Considering the severity of the recession, that sounds pretty good.
The US home vacant 1 in 9 (USA Today article 2/09). That's 11%. You quoted 13%, which may be more current, or not, where is that statistic coming from?
'...a “hope” and “change” President named Barak Obama who promised you a “new deal”'
Your hero George W. Bush was the one who made the mess.
ok, Michael Moore (kathy meeh) we have so much money. Funny, our country sure ain't acting like we have loads of cash. State run media and proganda that you like to quote and post is losing. I just read an article on SFGATE that supports exactly what I posted. And, that is just in silicon valley. Believe what you want, it's a free country, or is it?
Chuckle Nuts "W" was an idiot fratboy.
The real evil lies deep in the bowels of the corporate war machine who conspires with the bankster syndicates. Together they think nothing of grinding up human beings and national treasure for profit.
They will all end up in hell in the company of their political enablers and the religious right.
Anon 6:59pm, 27% unemployment sounds wild. I only asked you to quote your source (meaning back-up what you say). That SF Gate article reference didn't come-up on my search, nor should anyone have to check your statements (that's your job).
Anon 5:18pm "New Deal"? You must be confusing President Obama with President Franklin D. Roosevelt. But, remember who was President for 8 years before President Obama came into office? President Obama was greeted with "the worst recession since the great depression". Fortunately it was Obama's administration that kept this nation from falling into another deep depression, similar to that of the President Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration in the 1930's.
FYI, Health Care Reform is for the most part about "uniform patient protection". Currently these protections vary from State to State (or group self-funded health plans are Federal if no insurance carrier, or shared State/Federal if an insurance carrier). Do you really have a problem with uniform patient protection?
Some of your Republican congressional friends have done what they can to dismantle the provisions Health Care Reform, but its early. Medicare, and other social benefits have evolved over time, because people actually need such benefits.
No question, there are inefficiencies in government and in social systems that need to be addressed. Here's one: tax deductions for social security retirement benefits need to be increased (not to save the program), but to boost benefits from 40% of retirement income to 60% or even 80%. Even with self-funded pension investments, many people (for a variety of reasons) can not and do not save enough money for their older years.
And, definitely re-read Anonymoos, 6:55pm... he has an answer you're looking for. And Mike Bell, 7:29 just posted the easy to read 3 sentence history.
kids in pacifica need a good education so they can go work for walgreens and fresh and easy. jimmy v says, look at what i have done for pacifica.
I can't give no more. I need money for gas. Obama said it will be ok if I pay $5.00 for gas but I don't know. I guess I can have the bank take my house. Will they let me sleep in the school cafeteria?
Kathy needs to stop blaming republicans for everything. Democrats have been in charge of this state for over 20 years. The democrats have been in charge of congress since 2007 -2010. Democrats still have the house and presidency. When will you people stop listening to her propaganda? Since Oblunderer, he has tripled our deficit in less than two years. Now, he has put us into a war to protect france and their oil. NO BLOOD FOR OIL! sound familiar? HaHaHa! Fools!
correction: Democrats still have the senate.
obama and his racist Justice Dept. head, Holder, have been murdering people in Mexico by sending illegal weapons there directly from the White House. They even videotaped some of the smuggling of their weapons by the drug dealers, as they loaded them into vehicles and crossed the border, (instead of stopping them).
ATF officers have come forward to report they were told to let the weapons they are hired to stop, into Mexico.
it's called gun control bitch. create a problem solve the problem with new laws and control. its the way our government has always worked.
obama and Holder invaded a sovereign nation with the intent to kill and do harm to their citizens, and blame it on legal American businesses, so they could gut the Second Amendment and ban guns.
This whole administration is an illegal abomination, a disgustingly lawless cabal of socialists, communists and union thug terrorist supporters, doing their best to destroy Capitalism and the American Constitution.
Can no one see the truth?
WILL no one see the truth?
Now Obama says our kids in school should not have to take any tests, it "makes school boring"
WTF!
"obama and Holder invaded a sovereign nation with the intent to kill and do harm to their citizens, and blame it on legal American businesses, so they could gut the Second Amendment and ban guns."
Are the voices telling you that when you are not taking your meds, Anon?
While we argue over statistics and petty politics and keep throwing money at problems, our situation can and will get worse. Much worse. Save your money, make do with less, and become as self-sufficient as you possibly can. Profound changes are taking place.
Vote for strong schools? I'd be happy to but Measure C won't deliver that. We need to face reality. Property values are still falling and property tax revenues will continue to fall accordingly. Measure C and the Fire Tax aren't even band-aids on this gaping wound of an economy. I will not vote for any additional tax of any type until I see real austerity programs not just the usual smoke and mirrors
from those with seats on the gravy train. Seats the public continues to pay for with personal sacrifice and hard-earned money.
"obama and Holder invaded a sovereign nation with the intent to kill and do harm to their citizens, and blame it on legal American businesses, so they could gut the Second Amendment and ban guns."
It's true! It's true!. Glenn Beck said it!! And it was on youtube!!
If you can't trust Glenn Beck and youtube, who the hell can you trust?
(Re-posting from RIPTIDE)
Laurie, I do want your JUHSD to be successful. Education is the difference between light and darkness but there is an underlying issue here which is what I'm trying to discuss/argue/whatever someone wants to call it and that is as the public's fortunes wain the public sector should man up and wain with it instead of seeking to tax it more.
To go back several years to a Rotary mural project I did in the Sanchez Library with volunteers from through out the community (for the local Rotarian Centennial Project to create the two murals down stairs) one disrespectful teacher from the JUHSD simply dropped off his art class of about 20 or more on me one afternoon without warning. 20 plus JUHSD students just walked in out of nowhere.
Luckily those that wanted to do something (about half of them) were able to take instruction and work as a team and they, together, did the terra cotta glazing that butts up to the rest of the artwork in the community room. The others of course just sat around being teenagers. The students that got involved did a great job and with gusto even though they were ditched by their paid educator. And you can walk into the library community room tomorrow look right at the glazing job they did and feel proud of your student body because they did a fantastic job.
I never met that teacher before or since, never heard from him either. I'm not suggesting his behavior is in any way typical, I'm merely mentioning this because some students regardless of the situation will participate while other will loaf off.
Measure C won't change that inner drive to learn and experience as that is within the individual not the amount of money you spend on that individual. I haven't heard that acknowledgment in any of the arguments for Measure C to date just the usual heart string pulling rhetoric like John posted in his op-ed piece here today that lacks any kind of inclusive engagement beyond the "pay up or be an ass/suffer/whatever" road apples arguments infused with the "I'm owed" attitude of the HS teachers that are also posting on this thread.
I think the students that want to learn will do so despite the JUHSD budget or it's board of directors or it's teaching staff. Kids that want to learn are as aggressive about it as those that don't want to learn and that has very little if anything to do money. I would argue at this point believe in the students more than the supporters of Measure C Laurie.
Did you mean the Hilton library (rather than Sanchez), Todd? I know the mural in that downstairs community room, and have always thought it impressive! I don't know what to say about the teacher who dropped 20 students on you during that project, other than to commiserate and to agree that it shouldn't have happened that way.
I wholeheartedly agree with most of your last paragraph - all except your conclusion! Yes, a relatively small nunber of really motivated kids will learn and reach their full potential, no matter what. And at the other end of the spectrum, a similar few will frustrate just about every attempt to educate. But it's the vast majority in the middle who are at risk from budget cuts. They are the ones who benefit from not being in huge classes, who most need counsellors and good teachers, who will be engaged by technology -- and who will be harmed by the cuts that will be inevitable if Measure C funding is denied them. They are the ones who need our support, who are relying on us to not short-change them because of mistakes made in Sacramento. Please help us help them!
Yes, the Hilton Library, thanks Laurie. While I moan and groan it's a process for me more than an anti Measure C campaign. I'm grateful for your candor.
Thanks, Todd. Frustrating though it is, I understand and appreciate the journey. We'll get there!
For what it’s worth, I am strongly in favor of Measure C. This will be funds locally raised, locally controlled, and locally used. To short-change schoolchildren, whether they’re your kids or not, because of an incomprehensible morass in Sacramento is societal suicide.
Vanderbilt dropped out of elementary school. Life was a lot more difficult back then.
Ben Franklin , I don't believe was ever formally educated, neither was Thomas Paine.
Public Schools are so overrated today. They are not a sacred cow. They are indoctrination centers for the communists and no more. Case in point; recently a educator leader had our children take the day off of school to protest against cuts to her pension.
I think all students are pretty much done with public education by the time they are in eighth grade. If you desire more education, travel the world, learn how to make something, read everybook you can get your hands on. Save a life. Volunteer to do something great. Today's school system does nothing for our children, except for a very smalll highly ambitous percentage of students. The rest is uninterested, unless, there is party to go to.
Call me.
Jane,
I can see you were pretty much done with public education by the time you were in the eighth grade. Thanks for sharing.
... nah ... it's too easy ...
just read Paul Slavin's comment, then read "Jane Austen's" comment
'nuff said
Paul beat me to it.
Spare me the commie conspiracy rant and the fuzzy historical examples. We need to educate our children and educate them well. As a country however we do need to get back to basics, get our priorities straight and do more
with less. That was always an option. Real soon we'll have no choice around here. And that's ok, we'll be better for the experience. And re priorities--how the hell does SMC have $700,000 available for trails in Pacifica? And I don't give a rat's ass that it's grant money. That's taxpayer money and I don't want it wasted on frills. Shameful!
"If you desire more education, travel the world, learn how to make something, read every book you can get your hands on. Save a life. Volunteer to do something great." (Your comment Jane of Austerity, 3/30, 1:31pm).
Protest in an attempt to save the quality of education. Just as you said, fits into being a hero and doing something great.
I think it's kind of charming that a poster going by "Jane Austen" thinks an 8th grade education is sufficient for most people. Lovely, really.
In the centuries "Jane Austen" (1:31pm) makes reference to, not many people had formal educations. For sure not many girls were educated, and also may not have learned to read.
Even so, during your lifetime Jane (1775-1817), remember when you said... "Give a girl an education and introduce her properly into the world, and ten to one but she has the means of settling well, without further expense to anybody." --Jane Austin.
So, according to yourself, even 200 years ago you had a strong belief in the value of education. The world is more complicated now, and an 8th grade education, might be equivalent to a Masters Degree and/or high technical skills in today's world.
"You are not engaging in collective bargaining when you're a public employee union member -- you're just shaking down your fellow citizens." - Rush Limbaugh
Oh, well, GGHT 3:40pm, inflammatory Rush Limbaugh said it, it must be true. Relying on "Rush on high" for answers has got to be better than doing research, understanding, then thinking.
As I recall 30% of public employees (police, fire, engineers, clerks, etc.) are union members. According to you, guess these skilled employees are all in it for the "shake and bake". If you had a little more education, interest to serve, could pass the tests to qualify, and were hired-- you too could be insulted by Rush Limbaugh.
Jane Austen was to the Manor born and was educated mostly but not entirely at home by her father and older brothers. Ditto for her sister. For a woman of her day, and compared to most men, she was very well educated.
Since Kathy got off topic with talking about unions, here is an interesting article...
http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/118963234.html
kind of sounds like shake down to me -
Lois, from your referenced article, "Parrett said a number of WSEU locals in his region represent more than 1,300 union workers who have a combined yearly income of more than $56 million." Do the math, that represents an average salary of $43,077 per Wisconsin employee each. And, these union members may be professional school teachers, since that is approximately the average gross income for teachers in Wisconsin.
Do you really think I'm "off topic" when the article is titled "Vote for Strong Schools"? I was responding to a 3/30, 3:40pm comment from "Green Grass and High Tides" who quoted a really lame comment from Rush Limbaugh, who referred to "collective bargaining" as "shaking down your fellow citizens".
Rush Limbaugh personal ANNUAL income is apparently about $37 million dollars, according to Wiki answers,or Yahoo.
Is 1 Rush Limbaugh really worth the income equivalency of 859 "average" school teachers? You may think so, I don't.
Rush Limbaugh is a private citizen who works for his OWN company. He employs a great many people and from those employees creates many business. Once again, Kathy, Rush Limbaugh is a PRIVATE CITIZEN who works for his OWN COMPANY. Get it. You lefty commies have been trying forever to bring him down. Have you suceeded? Only to make him richer. LOL! Fools.
One can have a "strong belief in the value of education" and not support the communist indoctrination of government school called "Public School Education"
In the "good old days" of the 50s and 60s, Rush Limbaugh would have been in the 91% income tax bracket and his share would have paid for over 800 'average' school teachers. These days, the top income tax rate is 32%. Capital gains tax, which is mostly paid by the rich, is now only 15%. Anyone else miss the good old days?
Anon/Austin (should be spelled "Austen"), as Anon 3/30, 2:04pm said "Spare me the commie conspiracy rant and the fuzzy historical examples".
Now you want to remove public education along with text books from this democracy? Do some research, you really do need education-- and, I suspect that issue is at the core of your skewed ideological belief system. But, maybe you're just an old fashioned Fascist.
Ian (10:59am), you make an excellent point. In 50 years wealthy individuals and large corporations pay much less in taxes, while many industries and jobs have moved over seas. Some large corporations (such as the oil industry) are even subsidized even though they make huge profits, and there are those tax loop holes by moving companies off shore.
Do "friends of Austin" ask wealthy people to pay their "fair share" of taxes? No, they would rather go after "collective bargaining", obstruct recession progress, and cripple further poor people.
'In the "good old days" of the 50s and 60s, Rush Limbaugh would have been in the 91% income tax bracket'
That commie Eisenhower was running the country back then.
A top tax rate drop came in with President Ronald Reagan's administration (1981 to 1989). Tax Facts:
1981, 69.13%
1982, 50.00%
1983, 50.00%
1984, 50.00%
1985, 50.00%
1986, 50.00%
1987, 38.50%
1988, 28.00%
1989, 28.00%
1989, 28.00%
You drank the "Tea" party patriot" fascist, in today's world Eisenhower would be a Democrat for sure.
Too bad, you only voted for 2 city council candidates when there were 3 open positions and 5 good pro-economy candidates running, duh!
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