School Board votes to RAISE TAXES....

[mtraininjax]

In a vote of 5-2 the school board votes to raise your taxes $25 more per year for every $100,000 of house you own. Naturally Tommy Hazouri, who enacted the tax for tolls back in the late 80s, voted for the tax increase saying "I think its a very small price to pay for quality education". If $25 more per year is a small price for quality education, what would $100 do or if we had no increase, does that decrease the value of education?

I love taxation without quality representation, nice that we get to decide 11/2010, if we want to keep the increase.....

The Duval County School Board approved a quarter-mill property tax rate increase at its Tuesday meeting.


Five of the board’s seven members supported the increase, voicing concerns about future revenue cuts from the state on top of previous decreases in education funding. A rate increase required approval from at least five members.


Board members Stan Jordan and W.C. Gentry voted against it.


The district expects the rate increase to generate about $18 million in additional revenue for 2009-10.


The Legislature this year allowed districts to increase their property tax rate by a quarter-mill.
The board will hold a public hearing July 28 and will approve the overall estimated $1 billion budget in September. The tax increase goes into effect Nov. 1.


Owners of property with a taxable value of $175,000 would pay about $9 more next year.


Board chairman Tommy Hazouri said while the rate increase won’t have a large impact on property owners, the extra revenue will have a dramatic impact on children.


“I think this is a very small price to pay for quality education,” Hazouri said.


Gentry said he supported the tax increase but voted against it because board members

wouldn’t commit to only spending the money on shortfalls, not to increase the schools’ budgets. He also wanted to board to agree to repeal the tax if the state increased school funding back to 2007-08 levels.


Other board members expressed concerns with setting restrictions on the use of the money.
Jordan pointed out that the board had already set aside about 5 percent in its rainy day fund to help with additional cuts.


Superintendent Ed Pratt-Dannals has said the extra revenue may help the district when it runs out of one-time money, including $43 million in federal stimulus, in the next two years.


A few residents spoke at the Tuesday meeting on the tax rate increase.


Edward Exson, who’s retired from the railroad industry, said he supports the increase but wants to make sure schools are funded equitably.


Brooklyn resident Ayesha Covington said she was against the increase. She worried about people who are in danger of losing their homes and are already dealing with city fees imposed within the last two years.


Voters will be able to decide whether to keep the quarter-mill increase in November 2010 general election.

[urbanlibertarian]

mtraininjax wrote "I love taxation without quality representation..."

In a democracy we get exactly the government we deserve because we chose it.

[samiam]

If the value of my house keeps dropping I wont have to worry about it

[gmpalmer]

Well what did you expect, with the homestead exemption doubled and the property tax rates across the state reduced by Our Lady Charlene?

I'm no fan of taxes -- but property taxes make the most sense, as we're allegedly paying the government to do things like build roads and schools. 

Now, if we're going to have public schools (an entirely different debate), we ought to be able to fund them without resorting to one teacher in a room of 50 kids. 

And even if we fired everyone downtown, we wouldn't make much of a dent, as the SB budget is something like 3% of the entire DCPS budget.

We started this past budgeting process something like 180 million in the hole.  I'm surprised they're just now getting around to raising taxes.

[mtraininjax]

In a democracy we get exactly the government we deserve because we chose it.

Typical libertarian indifference to the issues. No one voted in the government to raise taxes when people have little money. After all, those people with foreclosed homes, who collects from them? How do you collect from the rental properties, where people have 12 month locked in leases?

If the value of my house keeps dropping I wont have to worry about it

Check with the property appraiser's office. Their valuations, so they say, lag the market by 2-3 years, so even though actual values are falling, your value may still be rising to catch-up to the present.

I'm no fan of taxes -- but property taxes make the most sense, as we're allegedly paying the government to do things like build roads and schools. 

In the City, we already pay for the BJP with a half cent sales tax. We further subsidize JTA/expressway authority with another half cent sales tax for roads and other items. And the crazy thing is that JTA gets most of its funding from the state. How convaluted is that?


You get no argument from me that the State is messed up. We need to change some of the amendments at the state level, to have power to get away formusing the lamest form of tax, property. We have more than 800,000 people in Duval COunty and if we are ALL in this together, we need to ALL pay for it in a SALES TAX referendum.

[gmpalmer]

No, property is the only proper form of tax.

Why should the government tax purchases?  What natural role does it play in a capitalist system?

The government rightly taxes property because we are, in effect, renting the property from the government anyway -- it can take it away whenever it wants to and we can't do a lot to prevent this (see -- they've got more guns & people than we do).

And you're talking about how do you collect from a fixed lease?  Even if the lease is on a 400,000k house, the difference for one year is $100.  Perhaps increase the lease by $20 a month next year?