* Andy Shaw in the Tribune…
The biggest canard in the debate over Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s progressive income tax plan is that wealthy folks don’t want to pay more because they’re greedy.
That’s unfair and just plain wrong, and I know it from firsthand experience.
When I headed the Better Government Association, a nonprofit watchdog organization, from 2009 to 2018, one of my main responsibilities was to raise enough money to pay the bills and grow the staff.
In the process, I met many of the Chicago area’s top philanthropists, who are among our most successful business executives and civic leaders. They’re extraordinary individuals who give huge amounts of time and money to our iconic cultural and academic institutions, social welfare agencies and reform groups like the BGA.
But their generous support of good government organizations is tenuous, and for good reason: They’re increasingly pessimistic about the possibility of meaningful reform in Illinois after living through years — in some cases, decades — of waste, fraud, corruption and inefficiency in city, suburban, county and state government. […]
Illinois voters should not be asked to consider a progressive income tax that will cost wealthy individuals and companies more than $3 billion a year, and further weaken donor support for reform organizations, until Springfield lawmakers do their jobs by demonstrating a real appetite for the responsible budgeting, spending and cost-cutting they’ve mostly avoided for decades.
Thoughts?
- Dee Lay - Thursday, Mar 28, 19 @ 9:57 am:
At least he is moving on from the “Cut waste, fraud, and abuse” talking point…
- ZC - Thursday, Mar 28, 19 @ 9:58 am:
All arguments that start with some premise, “I have this private knowledge that you don’t, and you could never have, so listen up …” are gonna be not very helpful, as a basis for public budget decisions.
- Paddyrollingstone - Thursday, Mar 28, 19 @ 9:58 am:
“responsible budgeting, spending and cost-cutting they’ve mostly avoided for decades.”
Um, isn’t that what they are doing? I mean raising taxes is usually something that politicians really don’t like to do.
Not sure what he’s talking about with his wealthy pals.
- Michelle Flaherty - Thursday, Mar 28, 19 @ 9:59 am:
So … if you tax rich people it will be harder for the BGA to raise money?
- lakeside - Thursday, Mar 28, 19 @ 10:00 am:
Will no one think of the very rich? They, the friends of Andy Shaw?
- Perrid - Thursday, Mar 28, 19 @ 10:00 am:
“Won’t anyone please think of the millionaires?”
I will never shed tears over the tax bill of someone making a quarter million a year. Or more.
- Watchword - Thursday, Mar 28, 19 @ 10:00 am:
Andy Shaw is right. All levels of Illinois government need to undergo significant streamlining and reform before additional taxes are imposed on Illinois residents.
Glad he is weighing in on the debate.
- Just Me 2 - Thursday, Mar 28, 19 @ 10:01 am:
I said this on this blog a few weeks and was ridiculed, but JB has made zero effort at cutting costs. He went directly to tax increases.
- Three Dimensional Checkers - Thursday, Mar 28, 19 @ 10:02 am:
Andy Shaw portrayal of the wealthy as the victims of waste, fraud, and abuse instead of the perpetrators of waste, fraud, and abuse shows how little he understands about corruption in Chicago.
- Norseman - Thursday, Mar 28, 19 @ 10:02 am:
Michelle hits another home run. Hey, Hey it’s opening day.
- The Way I See It - Thursday, Mar 28, 19 @ 10:03 am:
Since Andy Shaw has been reporting on government for years, perhaps he should issue a detailed report about all the streamlining that should be done.
- Skeptic - Thursday, Mar 28, 19 @ 10:04 am:
“At least he is moving on from the “Cut waste, fraud, and abuse” talking point…”
He is?
“in some cases, decades — of waste, fraud, corruption and inefficiency “
- Lester Holt’s Mustache - Thursday, Mar 28, 19 @ 10:04 am:
==Thoughts?==
No, mostly just schaudenfreude over the spectacle of Shaw reduced to complaining in the trib about dems not doing what he couldn’t even get his good buddy Bruce Rauner to do.
- PublicServant - Thursday, Mar 28, 19 @ 10:05 am:
Wow Andy. Some blanket statement you got there. That’s all you’ve got? I go with what you’ve got then. A progressive tax would place the burden of paying for all that waste, fraud, and abuse on the shoulders of people much more able to tolerate it. No reason to wait.
- Dirty Red - Thursday, Mar 28, 19 @ 10:08 am:
Showing some real progress on streamlining government might help move the needle with centrist Republicans that hear the argument in-favor of a progressive tax but expect it to come with some reforms. Getting serious about lean management could be one avenue. The framework is already there. It just needs a catalyst interested in more than putting numbers in a press release.
- Molly Maguire - Thursday, Mar 28, 19 @ 10:10 am:
Trump’s tax cut bill probabbly did more to hurt non-profit charitable giving than anything Shaw mentions.
- Joe M - Thursday, Mar 28, 19 @ 10:11 am:
Perhaps Mr. Shaw could give us some specifics of where he would like to see spending cuts, and how much those cuts would save?
- Springfieldish - Thursday, Mar 28, 19 @ 10:12 am:
“In the process,” I sold my soul and failed in the mission of the Better Government Association. There, I fixed for you Andy.
- wordslinger - Thursday, Mar 28, 19 @ 10:14 am:
Hilarious self-own by Shaw, whose job at BGA was begging for money from the 1% to pay his salary and run his show.
One of BGAs members and top supporters under Shaw’s watch was Lester Crown, who back in the day admitted to being part of a group that bribed state lawmakers.
Because…. better government.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1986-08-02-8602250559-story.html
- Eleventh Hour - Thursday, Mar 28, 19 @ 10:20 am:
Right. Just fix the Wastefraudandabuse already. Brilliant. Why didn’t someone think of this before?
- Anon312 - Thursday, Mar 28, 19 @ 10:22 am:
One of Andy’s BGA donors was JB himself, the altruistic tax-evader in chief.
So yeah, Andy, “wealthy folks don’t want to pay more because they’re greedy.” Should’ve just left it at that. Tossing a few shekels to swanky galas so you can hobknob with society’s upper crust ain’t exactly the kind of reform Illinois needs.
- RNUG - Thursday, Mar 28, 19 @ 10:30 am:
== JB has made zero effort at cutting costs. He went directly to tax increases. ==
JB’s first job was to stop the ship from sinking; additional revenue is a start. The public is just now beginning to learn about the hollowing out of State staff and the pinstripe patronage waste under Bruce Rauner. Restaffing agencies is a start; recent proposals for ISP and CFS are just 2 examples. And maybe some of the waste, like the outsourced employee / retiree health insurance choice application (that was Rauner’s dream of cutting employee health insurance) can now be found and cut out. But it will require time for more management review and more auditors and more lawyers to find that kind of stuff. Illinois doesn’t have the time to try just cutting things … and besides, Rauner has already proven cutting the wrong things costs more than doing nothing.
In an ideal world, everything would get done at the same time. With limited resources, you have to pick and choose what will give the better results for the effort. Right JB seems to be doing that …
- Not Specific on the Specifics - Thursday, Mar 28, 19 @ 10:30 am:
People asked about Shaw’s proposals. In the article they are:
1. “Convene a well-respected bipartisan task force to analyze the state budget line by line… to determine which programs and services the state should and shouldn’t be providing.”
2. “Review of the other state taxes, fees, credits, breaks and loopholes to see if there’s a revenue mix that’s more likely to keep and attract business and residents.”
3. “Draft a long-term plan for the elimination of at least a thousand units of government, or individual taxing bodies.”
So to recap: Create a task force (which may or may not save the State money), look into other taxes and fees (no mention of which he thinks would be better), and consolidate local districts (which do not impact the state budget).
- Montrose - Thursday, Mar 28, 19 @ 10:30 am:
“and further weaken donor support for reform organizations”
No. Absolutely no. As someone in the nonprofit world, I cannot be more opposed to his argument against the progressive income tax that it might hurt donations to nonprofits. Even his “clean up waste, fraud, and abuse” argument is better.
If one of our donors stops giving us money because we have a more just tax system, so be it. We need justice, not charity. Focus on the greater good, Andy. Not your bottom line.
- Rich Miller - Thursday, Mar 28, 19 @ 10:31 am:
===which do not impact the state budget===
The state helps fund K-12.
- PJ - Thursday, Mar 28, 19 @ 10:32 am:
===Showing some real progress on streamlining government might help move the needle with centrist Republicans===
lol. Sure. Can you point to one time in the history of our republic in which the anti-tax party has looked around and said “yep, we’ve cut enough waste and abuse, a tax increase seems fair”?
In that vein, can you, or anyone, give some concrete examples of exactly what should be cut to get those “centrist Republicans” ready for a progressive tax?
- Honeybear - Thursday, Mar 28, 19 @ 10:33 am:
That’s why I don’t call it greed.
“greed” is too easy to shrug off
Who thinks of themselves or even others as greedy?
No one. But it’s easy to shirk off
and insulate from that charge.
“privileged” seems to sting
regardless
“Winners take All” really addressed Shaw’s argument for the privileged best.
They gesture at philanthropy and charity
or at reform and change
Yet
it’s only gesturing at
not actually addressing
root causes
and root problems.
“Gesturing at”
Don’t pick on the wealthy privilege
as they gesture at solutions
- Concur - Thursday, Mar 28, 19 @ 10:34 am:
He’s right - in the past we’ve seen new sources of IL revenue hijacked and piece-mealed by ‘new’ programs; which leaves the carry-over debts of the State left back where we started - fighting for even more new money…
- El Conquistador - Thursday, Mar 28, 19 @ 10:38 am:
Geez… hollowing out state government, being unable to pay bills this accumulating massive debt, nearly all agencies running on fumes, and they want to pump the brakes and look for more cuts…
It’s waaaaay too late for this approach. We’re drowning and Andy’s wanting us to drown a little more. Wake up. Time for solutions not fantasy.
- Three Dimensional Checkers - Thursday, Mar 28, 19 @ 10:43 am:
The wealthy fantasize that there is some Boss Tweed caricature in Chicago taking their tax dollars and handing out turkeys to the poor. I wish that was the case. The reality is that the corruption comes from rich people scheming to get richer.
- Shrimp gumbo - Thursday, Mar 28, 19 @ 10:44 am:
The person in the mirror couldn’t possibly be responsible for my problems. No sir. It’s those greedy rich folks. Tax them for what they’ve done to me. Tax every breath they take. That’ll fix Illinois.
- JIbba - Thursday, Mar 28, 19 @ 10:45 am:
People are not wrong to say that we need to rethink delivery of services for better outcomes and possible savings, and JB should propose a review panel to start now. However, raising enough revenue can’t wait and should be done alongside.
- Anonymous - Thursday, Mar 28, 19 @ 10:45 am:
Andy just can’t kick the puckering up and planting addiction.
- wordslinger - Thursday, Mar 28, 19 @ 10:45 am:
–All levels of Illinois government need to undergo significant streamlining and reform before additional taxes are imposed on Illinois residents.–
Going forward, should they be proactive, take ownership, think outside-of-the-box and reach out for value-added synergy?
You realize you didn’t say anything, right?
- Anonymous - Thursday, Mar 28, 19 @ 10:53 am:
Illinois has drastically cut the number of state employees over the last 15 years and spends one of the lowest amounts per capita in the country. What are these people who don’t want to pay their fair share smoking?
- Juice - Thursday, Mar 28, 19 @ 10:54 am:
Avoided cost cutting, Andy? State facilities have been closed. The employee headcount is the lowest its been in decades. Spending on individuals with developmental disabilities and behavioral health issues has been slashed from already low levels. The Circuit Breaker program was eliminated, as was Illinois Cares Rx providing prescription drugs to seniors. All Kids became Some Kids. And has been pointed out many times here, higher education spending is well below 2002 levels, even before adjusting for inflation.
We had a Republican Governor for four years who had plenty of opportunities to find ways to reduce spending, and he happened to be close friends with many of these same philanthropists that Andy is crying crocodile tears for. And yet, instead he increased spending on education by putting in on the credit card, increased our debt load by billions of dollars simply out of spite and because of his disdain for the basic laws of arithmetic, and he agreed to spend for money on health insurance per member for the Teamsters that what the vast majority of state employees cost for “reasons”.
I agree we need to get our fiscal house in order, but what does his supposed panel of experts have to say that’s not just a bunch of power point corporate speak that ends up not actually translating to dollars and cents savings.
I do agree with him on the need to consolidate units of local government. But the two areas where we are the most egregious outliers are the number of school districts, and the number of municipalities. Mosquito abatement districts are a nice talking point, but are not the true root cause of the issue. In all of Cook County, there only two unit school districts, and one of them is CPS. So how to Andy’s donors, many of whom live in the north shore, want to deal with that? I don’t see them clamoring to have Winnetka annexed by the City of Chicago, or finding ways for Skokie to be covered by a single school district, instead of something like five. (Or in the South Suburbs, why does there need to be Homewood ESD, Flossmoor ESD, and Homewood-Flossmoor HSD?) But until a lot of the people who most often are complaining about these issues start having skin in the game by displaying their own willingness to give up their “local control” it is simply a lot of rich folk complaining for the sake of complaining and almost always somebody else’s fault. (Rant over)
- Michelle Flaherty - Thursday, Mar 28, 19 @ 11:00 am:
1. “Convene a well-respected bipartisan task force to analyze the state budget line by line… to determine which programs and services the state should and shouldn’t be providing.”
Great, and then this thing called democracy kicks in and the actual elected officials decide. Maybe the esteemed panel thinks austim funding should be eliminated. Maybe it thinks the state should eliminate the Local Government Distributive Fund. Good luck getting 30 and 60 and a signature.
Shaw’s op-ed comes across like an audition reel for his next six-figure part-time gig.
- Illinois Resident - Thursday, Mar 28, 19 @ 11:18 am:
Or we could just raise the taxes on the 1%. They already had a huge federal tax cut that primarily benefited them.
- Old Illini - Thursday, Mar 28, 19 @ 11:20 am:
==We’re drowning and Andy’s wanting us to drown a little more. Wake up. Time for solutions not fantasy.==
It’s amazing how easy it is to demand that other people pay for things.
- Ginhouse Tommy - Thursday, Mar 28, 19 @ 11:24 am:
Some so called experts want to cut more and streamline state govt. when the truth is there is not much left to cut. Many state agencies are down to bare bones as it is.
- POP - Thursday, Mar 28, 19 @ 11:31 am:
Checking out Ballotpedia summary of expenditures by State… Illinois spends in total $5108 per capita….this is less than Iowa ($7354), Wisconsin ($8108), and Michigan ($5466). Lots of cuts have been made. Can someone suggest an acceptable budget that is balanced without increasing revenues?
- Grandson of Man - Thursday, Mar 28, 19 @ 12:21 pm:
“cost-cutting”
Shaw, Republicans and their supporters need to tell us specifically what they want cut and by how much. But they don’t do that because it’s unpopular. Instead they just put out criticisms and attacks from the sidelines, where it’s safer.
“It’s amazing how easy it is to demand that other people pay for things.”
That’s right, like when Rauner the multimillionaire and his supporters tried to gouge unions and their members.
- Benjamin - Thursday, Mar 28, 19 @ 12:27 pm:
You know, North Carolina has one school district per county. Just putting it out there.
- Last Bull Moose - Thursday, Mar 28, 19 @ 12:35 pm:
By the time we vote on the Progressive Tax Amendment, we will have seen two budgets from JB and will have some history on how well he manages. No need to stop the effort now.
- Lester Holt’s Mustache - Thursday, Mar 28, 19 @ 12:36 pm:
==It’s amazing how easy it is to demand that other people pay for things.==
Old Illini: to be fair, we tried to go the other route first by electing Shaw’s good buddy Bruce Rauner. You can see for yourself how well that went in the other post about Morneau Shepell and the state employee insurance “reforms”
- PublicServant - Thursday, Mar 28, 19 @ 12:40 pm:
===We need justice, not charity.=== Perfectly said, Montrose.
- Just Observing - Thursday, Mar 28, 19 @ 12:43 pm:
=== which do not impact the state budget ===
We can’t just look at the state budget in a vacuum — we need to look at the aggregate tax burden. Citizens might have a better appetite for higher income taxes if property taxes were commensurately abated.
- SSL - Thursday, Mar 28, 19 @ 12:43 pm:
Of course revenue has to be raised. The issues some have with JB’s plan are not without merit however.
First, there’s JB kicking the pension can down the road, and it wasn’t a small kick. He went for a 60 yarder right out of the box. Many here blame past governors for doing the same thing, and they’re right. So yeah, JB joins the ranks of bad Illinois governors already. Raising taxes but not paying the pensions. Great stuff.
Then you have the progressive tax, which isn’t very progressive at all. Essentially two rates, with one under $250,000 and one over. This is very bad acting for the guy who claimed people like him and Rauner needed to pay their fair share. So why not have 4 or 5 tiers JB, with you and Bruce paying a 10% rate on everything over $5 million. He’s beyond disingenuous with his proposed progressive income tax.
And heaven forbid anyone should question whether there is any room to look at expenses. All of those expenditures are warranted, all of those workers are qualified, all of those procedures and processes are efficient. Sure they are. I’m from the government and I’m here to help.
- Anonymous - Thursday, Mar 28, 19 @ 12:47 pm:
Rauner tried that, but he found isn’t anything left to cut.
- M - Thursday, Mar 28, 19 @ 12:54 pm:
The people whom want more cuts. Please state which services would you cut (Education, health care, Mental Health, Road funds, State Troopers, Licenses, etc., etc..)?
- City Zen - Thursday, Mar 28, 19 @ 1:01 pm:
==Just fix the Wastefraudandabuse already.==
Fraubuste
- Anonymous - Thursday, Mar 28, 19 @ 1:41 pm:
==Just fix the Wastefraudandabuse already”==
Please inform us as to exactly where one can find waste, fraud and abuse in our state government.
- Anonymous - Thursday, Mar 28, 19 @ 1:48 pm:
“Citizens might have a better appetite for higher income taxes if property taxes were commensurately abated.”
If that happened, how would you pay for K-12 education, local police protection, local road service such as plowing snow, fixing potholes, etc., and fixing sewers, broken water mains, etc?
- Trapped in the 'burbs - Thursday, Mar 28, 19 @ 2:00 pm:
Is Andy Shaw now the Pat Quinn of journalism?
- Da Big Bad Wolf - Thursday, Mar 28, 19 @ 2:03 pm:
Do people who want to stop waste fraud and abuse ever think about what that would entail?
People who commit fraud and abuse don’t exactly like other people to know about it. So how do we catch these sneaks? Do we hire thousands of auditors and cops? How are we going to pay for that?
As far as waste, there was some discussion on the other thread about privitization being expensive and wasteful. But talk about deprivitization and you are basically trying to get someone fired. One person’s waste is another person’s livelihood.
- Anon - Thursday, Mar 28, 19 @ 2:08 pm:
For people who complain there is nothing left to cut and we need more and more taxes because of our supposedly low per capita spending.
According to the nonpartisan Tax Foundation study of 2018 we currently have the 4th highest (out of 50 states) individual tax burden (accounts for income,sales,property) in the country.
Only 3 states in the union have a higher tax burden than we do, yet according to many here our government is hollowed out.
Where is the disconnect then if 46 other states can manage to provide so much more spending per capita at lower tax levels.
Where exactly is all of the tax money going that our tax levels are 4th highest in the country and yet we have supposedly stripped govt to the bone?
Until we can square how we have an overall tax burden already 4th highest in the country yet such a dismal budget situation I don’t see how people can conclude that just reaching for more taxes (and becoming the highest overall in the country) will be the answer to our prayers.
The math dictates we have to have tremendous waste in the system if we can have the 4th highest tax burden and yet what many claim is a hollowed out govt.
The money is going somewhere, because we are already in the top 10% of tax burden in the country.
- Soccermom - Thursday, Mar 28, 19 @ 2:17 pm:
Did we ever find out how much Rauner has given to BGA? Or Ken Griffin? Inquiring minds want to know.
- Shrimp gumbo - Thursday, Mar 28, 19 @ 2:21 pm:
Anon — absolutely spot on.
- Da Big Bad Wolf - Thursday, Mar 28, 19 @ 2:24 pm:
Anon, Illinois is the fifth most populous state so it’s not that strange that we spend a lot of money. We have a lot of people and activity.
Also if you take out property taxes, Illinois is in the middle of the pack. Property taxes are determined locally, so if you want to know where the “somewhere” is that money is going, you would have to look at local units of government.
Lake Zurich has a library that looks like the Taj Mahal. Maybe a good place to start?
- Soccermom - Thursday, Mar 28, 19 @ 2:25 pm:
Anon 2:08, the issue is the way that we impose taxes. Our property tax system is crazy. Wealthy communities are spending a ton of money on their schools while poor communities are handcuffed by the low valuations on local property. If we could ever get ahead on our bills, we could start moving some of the burden away from property owners and spread it around via income and sales taxes. It’s just that Illinois voters were desperately willing to believe the magic beans being purveyed by Rod Blagojevich (who promised not to raise taxes while expanding services). Then we got the Rauner whammy, with spending going unrestricted because we went two years without a budget. It’s a huge mess and it must be cleaned up. And for heaven’s sake don’t tell me that “Springfield” made the problem and so “Springfield” must clean it up. Every single legislator in Springfield was sent there by voters. We all benefited from the unreasonably low income tax rates, and now we all have to pay for the dishes we broke.
- Demoralized - Thursday, Mar 28, 19 @ 2:36 pm:
==The math dictates we have to have tremendous waste in the system==
No, it doesn’t.
If this waste is so rampant you must be able to identify it. I’m not saying you can’t find waste. You can find it anywhere. But your suggesting that there must be a huge amount of waste simply because of our tax burden is ludicrous.
- Demoralized - Thursday, Mar 28, 19 @ 2:58 pm:
It always bothers me when someone talks about the need to cut costs and then don’t offer any sort of ideas/plans to cut anything. It’s easy to say we should cut costs. If you believe that then you must have an idea of where that can be accomplished.
- Blue Dog Dem - Thursday, Mar 28, 19 @ 3:05 pm:
Why these folks keep referring to waste. Why not just come out and say something like this,” the xyz program is a fine program, but the next few years the state is going to allocate its limited resources in core government services.”
So when you offer to cut back LGDF ….we hate to do it, but we have to spread the pain evenly throughout the state.
- Anon - Thursday, Mar 28, 19 @ 3:13 pm:
We have the 2nd highest property tax average (on a sample 194K home) in the country.
Our cities should be so flush with cash with that level of taxation the state government should be scaling back. 48 other states have lower property tax averages, and yet we have funding crises seemingly everywhere.
We have the 7th highest sales tax rating.
The math again just isn’t adding up as the total pot of money being paid in by our citizens (4th highest total average) should more than adequately be able to fund state govt.
The answer clearly is to redistribute the pot better, because I can’t believe anyone could argue with a straight face that taxing at the 4th highest overall level isn’t enough to run the state and local govts on.
Such a disproportionately high level of property tax frankly should have us among the lowest state tax levels. Yet we are already in the middle of the pack for state level income taxes and heading much higher soon.
The problem isn’t that there isn’t enough tax money available in the state, it is that we clearly aren’t distributing it properly.
The idea that we could have the 4th highest overall tax burden in the country and it is still not enough supposedly should appall everyone.
It sounds like the argument a millionaire would make if arguing he doesn’t make enough money to live on.
4th highest overall burden and yet people argue it is not enough.
There is sufficient taxes available, yet all levels of state govt plead poor.
Again, there is a massive disconnect there and it is imperative to figure out how we can’t manage to run the state despite statistically being in the top 8% nationally of tax burden faced by residents.
- Demoralized - Thursday, Mar 28, 19 @ 3:28 pm:
==Such a disproportionately high level of property tax frankly should have us among the lowest state tax levels.==
If you cut the state tax levels then your property taxes are going even higher. How are you going to replace the state revenue that the state does manage to give to schools?
==should more than adequately be able to fund state govt.==
You can’t simply say that we collect X% of taxes compared to the national average so that must be more than enough. You have nothing to base such an assumption on other than your simple minded assertion. You’re going to have to do a bit more analysis of the situation than what you are doing in order to draw such a broad conclusion.
==Our cities should be so flush with cash with that level of taxation the state government should be scaling back==
So because property taxes are high the state should need less income tax revenues? How exactly do you arrive at that conclusion. It’s obvious you don’t know what revenue sources fund what or you wouldn’t make such a statement.
- Shytown - Thursday, Mar 28, 19 @ 3:44 pm:
….I don’t really care what Andy has to say. #sorrynotsorry
- don the legend - Thursday, Mar 28, 19 @ 4:40 pm:
I’ve been searching but can’t find the total dollar amount of all taxes and fees collected in Illinois in 2017. Not just IDOR but every single tax and fee dollar in every town and city and village and county. Taxes on income, property, sales, estate, R/E transfer, utilities, surcharges, licenses, fines, registrations etc.
That would be an interesting number.
- wordslinger - Thursday, Mar 28, 19 @ 4:50 pm:
–The answer clearly is to redistribute the pot better, because I can’t believe anyone could argue with a straight face that taxing at the 4th highest overall level isn’t enough to run the state and local govts on.–
If I read you correctly, you’re suggesting suburban school districts cut spending and those property tax dollars be redistributed among less wealthy districts.
Sell it.
- Tim - Thursday, Mar 28, 19 @ 7:02 pm:
Thoughts, huh? That he’s right? Why is everyone so scared of a full scale forensic audit of every dollar the state spends and measuring its effectiveness. Do that and prove to me that no funds are being wasted, and then maybe I could support the additional dollars. Until you are willing to do that, moving seems like the best option.
- wordslinger - Thursday, Mar 28, 19 @ 9:29 pm:
–Why is everyone so scared of a full scale forensic audit of every dollar the state spends and measuring its effectiveness.–
Whoa. Not just a forensic audit, but a full-scale forensic audit?
Is that like double-secret probation or a triple-dog dare?
What is that, exactly, in your mind? Are you in search of crimes, anticipating civil litigation of some sort? That would be the appropriate application of the term “forensic audit.”
I don’t know what a “full-scale forensic audit” is.
Is that some word-salad you dish out when you haven’t actually read any budget books?
- Michael Feltes - Thursday, Mar 28, 19 @ 11:10 pm:
Just to finish the point, I agree that countywide schools are the most efficient scale at which to organize public education downstate and that you could save a decent amount of money that way, not to mention other benefits such as having a better range of courses and extracurriculars at the high school level, but good luck selling that.