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Originally Posted by Mee-n-Mac
Let me use school funding as an example of what I mean. I think most people would say public schooling is a good idea and that we all get some benefit from it. To that end everyone, even out of state property owners, should pay some of the costs. That said, the kid in school reaps most of the benefit and as such his/her parental units should (I say) pay the majority of the cost. We don't do this, although various fees and such are moving it in this direction.
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Sorry M+M but I strongly disagree with you here. One of our country's greatest assets is its education system although I agree it’s not perfect. One of the reasons it is great is that it is publicly funded, therefore blind to the economic status of its attendees (of course we could argue that statement, but again nothing is perfect). Requiring parental units to "fund the majority of the expense" would be disastrous as the majority of parental units are stretched to the limit just trying to feed and clothe their kids.
Education is usually the first target of politicians because they understand how important it is and most reasonable people do not want to see it under funded. Meanwhile pork projects and waste is seldom talked about because when expenditures are looked at independently they pale compared to education. When lumped together they become quite expensive.
I suppose I could go for the parental units paying the majority of the costs of education if that attitude were applied across the spectrum. Lets see, seniors pay the majority of medicare, the poverty stricken pay the majority of welfare, retirees pay the majority of social security, people whose houses burn down pay the majority of fire protection, crime victims pay the majority of police costs, you can see where I am going here, not a pretty picture.
Taxes on waterfront properties are higher because they are worth more, a fact that most owners understand. Some complain about these higher taxes compared to properties that are worth less, but none ever complain about their increased net worth due to owning these properties.
My humble opinion......