[Vision2020] Taxpayer Rights

[Donovan Arnold]

Sue,
   
  Thanks for the information. Your second point seems to contradict reason and fairness. 
   
  You state that a 2/3 vote is needed to collect public funds to construct buildings and other major facilities. I would presume this is to protect taxes from raising too high. Yet, if a levy tax is too high, it would seem only fair that it too would require a super-majority. If the MSD Administration cannot get the 2/3 vote they could easily just raise the funds by creating a series of supplemental levy increase that only require 51% of the vote. To me that is cheating the intent of the law and trying to circumvent a protection to taxpayers. This is why I think the wording and the question that a levy uses is important. 
   
  You also write: 
   
  "Why don't you ask him (Weitz) and when he tells you he is doing it for kids, ask him whose kids--. . ."
   
  I don't need to ask him that--the answer is obvious. I already know which kids he is doing it for. He is doing it for the alternative school's kids and others that will have jobs and want to keep most of the paycheck they earned.
   
  Best,
   
  Donovan
   
  
Sue Hovey <suehovey at moscow.com> wrote:
          Donovan,  I'll deal with just two of your points.  I'm sure others will deal with more.
   
  First:  The state has the constitutional duty to provide for a free public education and the majority of taxes that go to support school children in Idaho come from the state and not directly from local property owners.  
   
  Second:  Proposals for the building of schools, or other issues requiring bonding must pass by a 2/3 majority rather than a simple majority. 
   
  One extra for your nickle....I do not know what Gerry Weitz thinks.  But his lawsuit does not mention the issue of minority taxpayers being stripped and robbed of the fruits of their labor, so that seems not to be the overriding issue for him.  Why don't you ask him and when he tells you he is doing it for kids, ask him whose kids--certainly it isn't for the ones in Moscow Public Schools.  
   
  Take care,  
   
  Sue 
    ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Donovan Arnold 
  To: vision2020 at moscow.com 
  Sent: Thursday, May 10, 2007 8:30 PM
  Subject: [Vision2020] Taxpayer Rights
  

  The Wietz lawsuit raises some important questions in my mind, particularly regarding taxpayers and their rights. 
   
  Is it fair, first off, to have a vote to pay taxes for an indefinite amount of time? Seems rather unfair, voting to tax people in the future that have not been given the right to decide what tax level they feel is fair. Being told, "People in the past already voted and so you don't get to decide, ever, unless of course you want to raise the tax rate."--hardly seems reasonable to me. 
   
  Second, at what point is the minority tax payer able to rebel against the taxes levied upon him/her by the majority? What rights do they have to protect them from out right exploitation and thievery by the tax levying democratic majority?
   
  Third, are property taxes even fair or just? Taxing people on where they live, even knocking those on fixed incomes right outta their homes?
   
  Finally, placing the entire burden of running schools, the largest expense, squarely on the back of property owners seems rather harsh, is not greatly unjust. 
   
  What do you think? Am I wrong to think that there should be some limits placed on what the democratic majority can do to the minority taxpayer that just feels completely robbed and stripped of the fruits of their hard labor? Is it possible Gerry Wietz and other feel the same way?
   
  Best,
   
  Donovan 
    
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