Dear Rep. Cooper: Thanks but no thanks
Dear Representative Cooper,
Thanks but no thanks.
On your letter to me dated March 17, 2011, you reminded me that since I had just turned 62, I no longer have to pay that part of my property taxes that goes to support Cobb Public Schools.
I have two reservations with your offer. First, like your Tea Party supporters, I am against waste, fraud, and abuse. I contacted The Tax Commissioner's office to see if I could get a list of those who are exempt from school taxes. The list might indicate duplications, fraud, and error. I was told that there is no list and that the “IAS” computer system they have is not capable of generating such a list.
While there may not be the first error or fraud in the system, like Ronald Regan, my motto is “trust but verify.” There is no way to verify the accuracy of the system, if we cannot look at the exempt list. I suggest that you and your fellow Cobb representatives get together and devise a better law with more transparency. If it was required by law, our Tax Commissioner’s office would have this information and make it easily available to the public. What if you found enough wasted money to hire back all the teachers, get rid of the trailers, and eliminate furloughs?
After you fix this defective law, my second reservation is that I like quality public education. My company brought nearly one thousand jobs to Cobb County in 1995 because of a number of reasons. Quality public education was at the top of the list. Good public schools maintain the quality of our community and the resale values of our homes. The small advantage that I get from not paying school taxes is more than offset by the depreciation of my property value. Quality public education will attract more businesses to Cobb and further enhance my property value and lift the quality of life in our community. Financially starving the best part of our county, our public school system, reminds me of another saying, “Penny wise. Pound foolish.”
I refuse to abandon my quality public school system. I will proudly pay my school taxes. For those who are financially strapped, a transparent school tax exemption is a very good idea. If you find enough savings from waste, fraud, and abuse in the system, I’ll be glad to accept a tax reduction, as long as it does not hurt our school system.
Thank you,
Mike Holzknecht
Heather
11:09 am on Friday, May 13, 2011
So as a family of children in the school system, can I ask to be exempt for paying taxes on anything that benefits seniors?
I don't think cherry picking what we want our taxes go to is the answer. I think our government needs to be more transparent on their spending for every department period. It is our money anyways.
Eddy Galuszka
8:55 pm on Friday, May 13, 2011
Cobb County is one of the few jurisdictions I've ever heard of which has an exemption such as this. I'm not really sure its justification, as there are homeowners under 62 who have no children in school, and those who go to private school. Public schools are a public institution and a public service, and the entirety of the public should be responsible for helping to fund the system. Maybe if more people recognized they were investors in the public education system, they would be more personally invested in making sure the schools were of the highest quality possible.
M. Fresh
10:15 pm on Friday, May 13, 2011
Looking at recent data, one could think that reducing funding to the schools is the best thingnto improve performance.
Over the past few years as the budget has been drastically reduced, performance hasn't declined.
AYP performance and test scores have Risen.
Perhaps the greater focus on teacher performance is leading to positive results.
In any event, whether it's from seniors or everyone, taking more taxpayer funds to throw at education (as has been done the past few decades as performance declined) is a waste.
Beverly T McMurray
4:13 pm on Saturday, May 14, 2011
While I think that the age of 62 is way too young to begin the exemption, I do support exemptions for older citizens who've paid the school taxes for many decades. I'm not sure the best way to choose a "beginning" age for the exemption, but I do hate the idea of older homeowners losing their homes because they cannot pay their taxes after they already have the house paid off. Maybe a "means based" exemption for older people beginning at age 70, or an optional exemption. I suppose it is already optional now since the exemption has to be applied for and a homeowner, like Mike, can choose to pay the tax. Thank you, Mike, for raising this issue for discussion. Beverly T. McMurray
Steve Dix
5:41 pm on Tuesday, May 17, 2011
To me this whole argument is like the eradication of Medicare for everyone under 55. I'm over 60 now, so am I not supposed to care that my kids or my neighbors who are under 55 won't get it? Well, why should it be any different with regard to our Cobb County schools? I don't have any kids in school any more, so it doesn't matter if the schools have enough money to operate? It's all a matter of whether one accepts the idea that there is a social contract or not. I believe there is, and with it comes responsibility to support our public institutions - and note the use of the term PUBLIC. Our school taxes go to support PUBLIC schools, not government schools. They are PUBLIC in the sense that the public at large is entitled to the use and benefit of them. . . just like public parks, and public roads, and public libraries. Even if you never go to a public park or a public library, you benefit from its being there. . .the same thing applies to the schools. Our neighborhoods are all better off with a decent public school in them; we should all pay for them.
Elinor Spalten
9:35 am on Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Thank you Mike H. for your comments on school tax exemptions for seniors in Cobb County. At my age, I get all exemptions available here in Cobb County, and since I moved here in 2001, have always felt there should be a means tested basis for any taxes, as suggested by Beverly McMurray. Cobb is a very desireable county for seniors, because of its tax deductions, and even though I have no children in the school system, I too would gladly contribute more to the schools. But it would be better to put this into law, means testing, just as it should be done on a Federal level for Social Security. Having lived in Manhattan for 45 years, the land of multi-millionaires, some of whom I knew as friends, I winced every time I heard them object to any means testing for SS. Of course, they were Republicans. Mike, you are so right to push for us Dems to get back to the grass and start working again, as we did in 2004. Elinor Spalten
M. Fresh
2:00 pm on Wednesday, May 18, 2011
I am confused by this statement:
" I too would gladly contribute more to the schools."
Some assumptions I make:
- you think that more funds for the schools would do good
- you are happy to contribute more than you do - given your exemptions, etc.
- you are able to contribute more than you do
- you choose not to give more to the schools, which would make you happy (glad)
- you might contribute more if the government forced you to
The government doesn't make people contribute to charities, etc. - but people do - if they can, feel it makes a difference, and makes them happy.
Why aren't you opening your pocket-book wider now?
Or am I missing something?
Mike Holzknecht
9:35 am on Saturday, May 21, 2011
M. Fresh, there is a place that has the public school system of your dreams.
It is called the third world.
The average home values are very low.
The average income is very low.
Public services like education, fire, police, water, sewers, transportation, and recreation hardly exist.
On the plus side there is a section of the big towns where the few rich live behind fortified walls with private guards. They send their children to a local private school in bullet proof cars or send them out of the country for an education.
Delta is waiting, if you want to live your dream.