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"I Pay $271 A Month To Schools And I Don't Have Kids": Illinois Bureaucracy Sucks Homeowners Dry
Ever since the Illinois Supreme Court struck down a pension reform bid in May, prompting Moody’s to downgrade the city of Chicago to junk, the state’s financial woes have becoming something of a symbol for the various fiscal crises that plague state and local governments across the country.
The state High Court’s decision was reinforced late last month when a Cook County judge ruled that a plan to change Chicago’s pensions was unconstitutional.
As we’ve discussed at length, these rulings set a de facto precedent for lawmakers across the country and will make it exceedingly difficult for cities and states to address a pension shortfall which totals anywhere between $1.5 trillion and $2.4 trillion depending on who you ask.
For Illinois, the situation is especially vexing. As you can see from the following graphics, the state’s unfunded pension problem is quite severe.
(Charts: Chicago Tribune)
As the New York Times explains, "pension costs in many American states and cities are growing much faster than the money available to pay them, causing a painful squeeze. Officials who try to restore balance by reducing pensions in some way are almost always sued; outcomes of these lawsuits vary widely from state to state. Some of the worst problems have been brewing for years in Illinois, particularly in Chicago, where the city’s pension contributions have long been set artificially low by lawmakers in Springfield, the state capital. With more and more city workers now retiring, a $20 billion deficit has materialized."
And while we’ve spent quite a bit of time discussing the various issues involved in the pension debate from overly optimistic return assumptions to the use of pension-obligation bonds as stopgap measures, even we were surprised to learn just how convoluted the fiscal situation truly is in Illinois.
As the following excerpts from a Reuters special report make clear, Illinois is in bad shape, and fixing things isn’t going to be easy.
* * *
From Reuters
"Multitude of local authorities soak Illinois homeowners in taxes"
Mary Beth Jachec [a] 53-year-old insurance manager gets a real estate tax bill for 20 different local government authorities and a total payout of about $7,000 in 2014. They include the Village of Wauconda, the Wauconda Park District, the Township of Wauconda, the Forest Preserve, the Wauconda Area Public Library District, and the Wauconda Fire Protection District.
Jachec, looking at her property tax bill, is dismayed. "It’s ridiculous," she said.
A lot has been said about the budget crisis faced by Illinois - the state government itself is drowning in $37 billion of debt, and has the lowest credit ratings and worst-funded pension system among the 50 U.S. states. But at street level, the picture can be even more troubling.
The average homeowner pays taxes to six layers of government, and in Wauconda and many other places a lot more. In Ingleside, 55 miles north of Chicago, Dan Koivisto pays taxes to 18 local bodies. "I pay $271 a month just to the school district alone," he said. "And I don't have children."
The state is home to nearly 8,500 local government units, with 6,026 empowered to raise taxes, by far the highest number in the U.S.
Many of these taxing authorities, which mostly rely on property tax for their financing, have their own budget problems. That includes badly underfunded pension funds, mainly for cops and firefighters.
A Reuters analysis of property tax data shows that the sheer number of local government entities, and a lack of oversight of their operations, can lead to inefficient spending of taxpayer money, whether through duplication of services or high overhead costs. It leads to a proliferation of pension funds serving different groups of employees. And there are also signs that nepotism is rife within some of the authorities.
On average, Illinois’ effective property taxes are the third highest in the U.S. at 1.92 percent of residential property values.
In many Illinois cities and towns, high taxation still isn’t enough to keep up with increasing outlays, especially soaring pension costs, and some services have been cut. For example, in the state capital Springfield, pension costs for police and fire alone will this year consume nearly 90 percent of property tax revenues, according to the city's budget director, Bill McCarty.
Sam Yingling, a state representative who until 2012 was supervisor of Avon Township, north of Chicago, has become an outspoken critic of the multiple layers of local government.
Yingling said when he left the township three years ago, the township supervisor's office had annual overheads from salaries and benefits of $120,000. He claimed its sole mandated statutory duty was to administer just $10,000 of living assistance to poor residents.
The large number of local governments is a legacy of Illinois' 1870 constitution, which was in effect until 1970. The constitution limited the amount that counties and cities could borrow, an effort to control spending.
So when a new road or library needed building, a new authority of government would be created to get around the borrowing restrictions and to raise more money. Today, for example, there are over 800 drainage districts, most of which levy taxes.
And it isn’t only the number of authorities that is a concern. Illinois has about one sixth of America’s public pension plans – 657 out of almost 4,000.
Local authorities in Illinois are mandated by law to keep the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund, with 400,000 local government members, fully funded. They had to contribute $923 million in 2014, up from $543 million in 2005.
However, there is no such requirement for the local pension funds. The result: Many of these funds throughout the state are woefully underfunded, and some have less than 20 percent of what they need to meet obligations.
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The piece - which you're encouraged to read in full as it contains several of the most egregious examples of government waste and inefficiency you'll ever come across - goes on to say that reform simply isn't an option, as the Illinois legislature is filled with lawmakers who have at one time or another themselves benefited from the state's sprawling local bureaucracies. Reuters also says it has identified nearly a dozen instances where husbands employ wives, mothers employ daughters, and fathers hire sons," suggesting nepotism weighs heavily on the already elephantine system.
Bear in mind that this is the same state whose court system refuses to allow efforts at pension reform to move forward, and while all of this may seem like a recipe for default disaster, just remember, PIMCO sees a lot of "long-term value" in Chicago's debt.
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Same here in Rochester, NY. Costs more than 3 times as much for a rental truck out of here, than vics versa.
The Great Lakes Basin is a wonderful place, right?
I agree with you but, have some grace. I was born and raised here, and have family and friends and good job. Pulling up stakes is hard.
However things change and I have an eye open for opportunity.
this is only applicable in states that have it written into the state constitution that pension benefits cannot be reduced or eliminated.
It is NOT a general message to other states.
Are our socialists finally running out of other people's money?
While we all look forward to the great economic re-set, it must be remembered that 'Chicago' is going to spread to a lot more cities - and it will get worse. We will see immense cuts in federal and state budgets - but the programs will not go away - instead they will go after the home owners for funding. Property is a risky business just before the re-set as the dying dragon reaches out with its taxation claws.
Don't worry - next economic downturn, the Government can print up some more Federal Reserve Debt and pass it to Illinois as "stimulus."
What's the big deal?
They did it for the banks here in the US, they did it for the European Banks ($16 trillion), they continue to do it for Wall Street. MagicBucks for all, Illinois, California, you're all cured of underfunding...we'll just lower the worth of the dollar fourteen cents more than it was in 2014. All's good in Oligarchland.
You pay because it's in your best interests to at least give the young-ones in your neighborhood a chance to grow up to be something other than druggies, thieves and outlaws that may pray upon you in the future. Call it an anti-crime insurance premium. If you had a sense of community, you would intuitively know this. If nothing else, think of it as; you're paying to keep the little beggars off the streets and out of mischief that may have the potential of causing you grief.
Better off buying the little homies a lotto ticket as they have about the same odds as them getting through skool.
The best thing he could do is sell the house, rent a place and be done with it.
It's not like he would ever actually "own" it anyway....
I like your idea to pay off the blackmailers, terrorists and kidnappers. That works every time. Much like giving your dog steak when it bites someone to prevent aggression.
WTF do you think the entire welfare system is about, altruism ?
It's paying the unemployed/unemployable savages to leave you somewhat alone.
Like they're all gonna sudenly find jobs and become productive citizens if they stopped paying them to leave you alone....
It's blackmail, dummy. A shotgun is the only way to make the savages leave you alone.
No it's not blackmail, it's a natural consequence from all those laws rules and regulations that afford you the clean visual aesthetics that are so important to the sub/urban lifestyle. If you legislate people to idleness, you gonna have to compensate them. J.S. Mill touched on this in his book 'On Liberty'.
Of course, it doesn't help either to follow an economic ideology that thinks it's peachy keen for industries to export production to take advantage of foreign labor arbitrage against the very people that made their success possible, and to add insult to that injury, import the products at the same price point as when they were produced here...
You are indirectly paying taxes when you rent as well.
Better off aborting the little homies.
I have 3.500 rounds of .45 that I bought long ago at about $0.20 each. I have another 6,000 rounds of .30 cal that I bought at about $0.10 each. Those 'young-ones', at most, would cost me $0.20, to ensure my future, my kids future, my grandkids future and my community's future. $0.20 vs $600 (locally), which is economically cheaper (even your dumb ass can figure that out).
I already pay, and volunteer to pull the 'little beggars' off the streets. The moment one steps into my presence in a menacing fashion, he's gifted with a .45 or .30. Fuck him, fuck you.
You are a fucking Liar and a fraud
" The moment one steps into my presence in a menacing fashion, he's gifted with a .45 or .30 "
Yea right......
What a fucking moron...
Its just like Greece. Greece is Illinois' future. This is the result of socialism every single time. And it lasts longer than anyone would think because as time goes by, more and more people are drawing on the government tit for their sustenance. None of them want the tit to go dry. You have all of those GUARANTEED VOTES to perpetuate the system. Towards the end, more people are on the tit than not. The smart ones have to evacuate before things get too bad. The stupid ones stay and bear the burden.
Greece is Americas future
But Greece has some character and intelligence left. No sign of that in the ghetto's of ChiRaq.
I don't believe this. It's impossible for governments to be this incompetent/corrupt/dumb!
(Don't down-arrow me, bro!)
You got down arrowed. You're screwed.
You do have a point. Most of us view government as incompetant, corrupt, disfunctional, useless, needs to to be lined up and shot, hanged or garrotted.
How is it possible for some entity to be so all knowing, all powerful, and all backed by every single dollar of the global owners that it still doesn't recognize how it is actually recognized as inept, corrupt, owned and ignored by the vast majority of the people they expect to support it.
I for one, would be perfectly fine to watch Obama, every single person in the Senate and House, every Supreme, and Every head of every agency down to the fifth level, HANGED ON A DC STREET LIGHT. I'd be perfectly fine with it. Fuck, I'd volunteer to help hold a rope!
(FBI, yep, you know where I live. Fuck you.)
How is it possible that so many people in government are so fucking stupid that they didn't think anyone would look at their bullshit and just fucking call them on it?
Obama, and you're fucking minion Perverts, come get some. I'm here, you know me, you know where I am.
You fucktoids should die in a Chinese/Russian/Iran BIG fucking Nuke. The whole world, including the US, would celebrate.
Die, you fuckers, die.
Lemonjello, Orangejello, Female, Shithead…
True names some of the local FSA mom's named their children. America's education establishment at work.
Shithead...fuck, I knew a winning name when my oldest was born.
Kid runs the infrastructure for Afganistan after 13 years there. Totally flunked tenth grade...all F's (how do you flunk PE?)
Impressive dude, even though he's my son, but 'Shithead' is way better than 'David'. Fuck, what was I thinking!? I named a dog 'Booger' just so I could hear mansion old ladies complain that 'Booger was in thier hedges' or 'Booger fucked my Poodle" (actually happened.)
{actually, I do have a bit of pride in my older son becoming the person he is, in spite of the fact that our war criminal government had put him into the position he is in.}
State cops are retired at 50 with an inflation adjusted pension,while getting second union job. Lot of double dipping. Cook county judges get promoted last 2 years because pensions are based of last two years work history. Suburban firefighters making $200,000yr pay with benefits. States a train wreck!
I too want Zimbabwe equal education
.
what if i have to sell my house, who will steal it from me?
If you don't pay your property taxes, the government will throw you out.
It's really not your home, is it?
That's right, they throw you out and then they steal it.
As streets and bridges rot.
You really get nothing out of it?
I have been studying their process. It is flawed in law. In my state, they skip the adjudication of the debt or demand for payment. In most debt cases, the property is seized and sold, in support of a previous action. Otherwise you have someone alienating property that does not possess the right to alienate the property because they are not the owner. The alienation of property (sale of property) is strictly a right of the owner in law.
Maybe you're right, but at the end of the day I only have to bet around a hundred bucks a month to keep the house. Way cheaper than renting. This is on a 4,000 square foot house on five acres.
The best part? Where I live the assessed value can only go up 3% a year, regardless of what the actual home price does. Should the price fall, assessed values falls, by law. Should the value double, assessed value only goes up 3%. Oh, and I have 100% equity in the home so
If the price falls, I won't be underwater, and if the price rises hugely,
I can always sell and reap the benefit.
Commiefornia's Proposition 13 is a winner. Back in 2006 when my 98 purchased home for $75k was valued at $375k, my property taxes where at some thing like an 80k value. 2010, when my home was suddenly worth $75k, my taxes dropped. They've been on a climb since then, but at most, 2% per year, House now valued by Zillow at $175k or so. Property tax is based on about $82k valutation. Yeah, and I pay for schools and my kids are all grown up. We made that deal in 1980, I voted for it. We needed a new High School. I'm not complaining, I'm just paying the bill I voted for.
Many don't know that you can call on any bond on you property tax bill, find out the balance due for you, and pay it in a lump sum, often at a discount. And then never have to pay it again on property taxes.
I've bitched about government, taxes, the resultant corruption. One of the quickest ways to eliminate their influence on your life is to rid yourself of obligations to them. Shit you, or others, voted for can be paid off, immediately (if you have the funds), or almost immediately by sending a separate check to thte bondholder.
There ARE things that are necessary and, in today's financial, fascist, world, funded by government. You normally vote for these things. Even if you lose, you're stil on the hook for them, so see what the discount is, work to pay the fucking thing off, and get your property tax bill down to just your property, nothing else.
If true, invaluable info. Thanks.
You seem quite happy that your servants are taxing you unalienable right to property. You seem to really like those 'limits'. I got news for you, those limits are to make the whole thing seem reasonable, but the truth is, those limits are arbitrary, and can be changed. When you real value falls 10% and the valuation goes up 3%, you may see the flaw in your thinking. What about your other inalienable rights? Like the right to life. What if they decide to tax that (they actually already have, Obama care. But it was packaged and promoted, so so idiots think it is a great thing). The right to property is unalienable, when you allow that to change, by one penny, you have nothing and own nothing.
My school taxes are just over 3 times by property taxes and I don't have children. In my district - the voters just voted DOWN to back to back referendums on raising our school taxes more. I live in Delaware - 3 counties in the entire state - we have NINETEEN distinct school districts. My district alone - there are 100 administrators making over $100K per annum. Every district (19) has their own superintendents, asst supers blah blah blah. Remember though - it's "all for the children". Yeah right - every year they come out less intelligent than the year before.
Agreed, I have one 'state educated' and one home schooled kid that is way ahead of the curve.
O/T: Anyone noticed a lot of alternative media sites disappearing of late or is it just us back-woods Aussies getting censored?
hard to tell, where did you go to school?
is it just us back-woods Aussies getting censored?
Nope, I'm getting more and more pablum from search requests, It's not just Aussies (BTW, we Americans love you guys. Not government, just ordinary Americans. You're cool with us, we think of you as cousins.)
try these: https://startpage.com/do/search https://ixquick.com/
271 a month? he gets off cheap. come to jersey and deal with our NJEA mafia
Koag, I agree no kids and I'm paying over $600 a month for education taxes in NJ and Christie is running around the country acting like he is presidential material on taxpayers dime. Unbelievable.
Agreed that municipal taxes (heck, all taxes) are way too high. In Canada, we are paying over 50% of income in some form of tax or other. However, the argument that "I don't even have kids" is specious at best. She will benefit from the productivity and taxes of other peoples' kids and must help financially in their raising (even though we all agree that the system is too inefficient and wastes other peoples' money).
People who want to raise kids should be able to pay for their own education. Others should be forbidden from having kids, and if they do the kids should be killed.
Parents who homeschool their kids should have no obligation to pay for the public schooling of other kids.
Point 1. Agree.
Point 2. Holy shit! Damn, Dude, you're kid is six and you're useless and on welfare...shoot the kid. No. Shoot the parents.
Point 3. Agree.
People who want to drive should be forced to pay for the roads by themselves,. Those who take the bus should be able to pay for buying that bus and not be subsidized. Want sidewlds to walk on - pay for it. Why should I pay taxes for the fire department when I've never had a fire? We shouldn't have to avoid peanut butter because someone is allergic to it. Those who want pensions should save for them themselves. Blah blah blah and so forth.
People who have kids do pay for their education. It's called taxes. Same as all the rest. there are certain things that are in the common good that help define a society. Ensuring a future through children is one of them. If you don't want a 'society' then opt out. Stop using the public electricity grid because you didn't pay for it. Refuse OAS and all the rest unless you have kids who are going to pay into it. etc etc.
gmak, another idiot posts.."common good" always means picking our pockets or restricting and eliminating freedom..based on some higher authority's idea of good..define good for us will you..not holding breath.
Paid for schools with my property taxes, and HOMESCHOOLED my own kids! I relieved the state of the burden of educating them, yet they got to keep the money. You would think they'd be grateful, right?
WRONG!!! I kept hearing all of these teachers and NEA (Never Educates Anyone) types complaining about how homeschoolers TAKE MONEY AWAY FROM THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS!!! How? Because the schools LOSE FEDERAL MONEY when kids don't go to public school.
I respond, "That is like saying that a man comes to my house... he askes if I want him to paint it for $10,000. I tell him, 'NO WAY!!! That's too expensive! I'll do it myself!' He then goes on the news and complains about how I cost him $10,000 by NOT LETTING HIM PAINT MY HOUSE! He didn't get the $10,000, but he ALSO didn't PAINT MY HOUSE. WHY SHOULD I PAY HIM ANYTHING?"
To which, some respond, "Yes, but you get the BENEFIT of an EDUCATED SOCIETY by paying taxes for PUBLIC SCHOOLS!"
To which I RESPOND, "Well, maybe I would, but doesn't that presuppose that they are ACTUALLY GETTING EDUCATED???"
Public school funding in Texas is different from any other state. Local school districts lay property taxes (capped by law) and also receive money from the state (Foundation School Program) based on average daily attendance. The local charter school does not participate in the property tax receipts. They only get the average daily attendance allotment from the state. You'd think the local public school district would throw a party because they get to keep the property tax receipts. Oh no, no, no. They grouse that the charter school (that is actually educating the kids) is "taking" the district's money.
From now on, every single time that a referendum comes for vouchers or open enrollment, I will vote for the kids and against the local school district.
Actually, Society owes you. They are benefiting from kids that were actually educated (your home schooled kids). Not the other way around.
I live in a not especially affluent Chicago suburb and pay close to $6000/yr to the local school districts in property taxes. My kids are grown. They never went to public school. I would not really mind except that the high school district that I live in is the highest paid in Illinois and the cost per student per year is about double the tuition of the local Catholic high school AND when teachers get close to retirement age the school districts buy out their contract by giving them extra salary in the last year and then shift their pension liability onto the state... so the teachers get more pension, but not on the district budget.
The teacher retirement cost is off the local district's books ... so the real cost to the tax payer is much higher than my ~$6000/yr portion of property taxes. (total taxes are not quite double the school portion).
... and don't get me started what the top administrator make as salary. They are massively overpaid ($400k to $600k). Maybe that is how they get them to institute progressive (communist) policy.
How in the hell do they even attempt to justify mid-six figure salaries for school adminstrators? Or are we so far gone that they don't even try to?
YT owes all those worthless Affirmative Action hires that money because they had to pick cotton 150 years ago!
In Ohio they have a school levys that fail in November when most people vote so then next spring the schools each pay $50 grand or so to have a special election where the only people who show up are unionized teachers and the rah rah PTO mothers. Disgusting lot. I sent my 4 kids to private schools after I got tired of teaching them how to do arithmetic in the evenings since the "super" suburban schools were fond of Chicago math. All of my kids were taught to read at home by age 3, but other intelligent public school kids we new had trouble reading at grade level since phonics was not in vogue at the wonderful school district we lived in. All most teachers in Ohio care about is their pensions. Graduate college at 22 and retire at 52, then live off the pension til you drop dead at 90. Collect for more years than you worked. Fuckin eh!
Why should I be forced to pay someone elses retirement AND my own?
Doesn't make sense.
It does to me and my friends who never worked a day in our lives but can outvote you.
Thanks, man.
It's the hidden deal when one is young, dumb, and wanting to own a house.
Get some kids.
There should be a citizen line item veto on municipal,state and local government spending proposals.
Additionally when someone buys a home they should only pay a portion of property taxes for schools for the length of time that they were in school K-12 (13 years) after that no more taxes for schools.
Also only for the services that they use don't use the library don't pay for it etc.
If your a senior citizen than no property taxes at all.
Oh I almost forgot fuck the NEA
I heard today that Tiny Dancer (Rahm) has said the city will pay for sex change operations as well. People just re-elected this cunt so fuck you Chicago. You reap what you sow
This is where the collapse takes place. Not banking. Or the dollar. It will be the crushing weight on the taxpayers backs.
Got a house? - pay up.
Got a car? - pay up
Got electricity? - pay up.
etc. and so on until everyone is boiled alive.... slowly.
Seems relevant, except one group might give help when its interests were in trouble
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XGAmPRxV48
Schools everywhere are having to indoctrinate more and more "english as a second language" pupils, very expensive. Getting a job as a teacher without that second language is near impossible in those areas. Dismantle all public sector unions.
For the people of Chicago there are only two ways out of this horrifying fiscal bleeding and indebtedness:
1. Double or triple all taxes, remove the FSA, and pay the way out.
2. Uh ... I don't know what the second way is.
2. System implodes and Chicago goes Mad Max.
Oh, and #1 leads to #2. Best to invest heavily into leather and spiked accessories now while it is cheap.
3. Invest is a welder so you can weld steel plating all over your vehicle
Got that one covered already! lol. (rebuilt an old car. MIG welder was essential. and comes in handy now for all sorts of stuff... later for armor and pointy things of course).
To hell with the vehicle, put armor plating on your doors and walls. Put four inch in the area you plan to shoot from. Fuck the car, focus on what is important.
3) Put all the broken assets into a "Bad City" that contains all the pension funds and bond purchases, then set up New Chicago next door to the old City Hall.
Buck Rogers can run for Mayor.
Wilma Deering for City Comptroller.
dude, besides the government workers (which are a FSA) most of the rest of the folks living in chicago are in the FSA. Very few payers left and many of them are just waiting for UHaul to restock locally.
Government officials tend to see themselves as savvy businessmen despite mostly having never run a for profit business. So what would any savvy businessman do when confronted with a revenue shortfall? Why, raise prices of course! The obvious problem being that raising prices via statute is the farthest thing from being in business that exists. No businessman can pass a law to save himself like the government can. So as things go into the can, the brilliant government workers raise taxes to cover their as*es.
Yep, our City raised income taxes from 2% to 2.5% after the "global financial crisis". Funny how these fuckers never lower them once the coffers are full again.
Been screaming about this theft for 17 years. In NJ, it's even worse. I was laughed at for many years. No one is laughing any more. Things are so much worse than anyone will ever admit. What I don't understand is where the banks sit on this theft .....when the property tax is now higher than the fucking mortgage, this can't be a good thing for the banksters. Shot in the head by the banksters or shot in the heart by the public pigs.....
home owner rents are higher than renters rents. And they wonder why a growing percent of workers have dissipated from the work force. They wonder why the next generation is living in their parents basement and those that are not cannot afford to buy a house.
It's not just Illinois, New York is just as fucked up.
http://www.wave3.com/story/16984618/buffalo-ny-teachers-can-get-unlimite...
Keep telling my family to get the hell out, but do they listen?
+1
I live up the 90 in Shitchester, just as bad, here.
Illinios is such a beautiful state. It's so unfortunate that inept people are running the education system.
If you look at the geography of Illinois you can see how regulations are encroaching on basic values.
The southern tier counties are being "ass~raped" for tax revenue. Rahm E-Man-Hole should be hung until DEAD!
Mom packs us into the 59 Rambler, we're headed to Grant's Park Illinois. We cruise down Route 66, didn't know it but mom went to visit my aunts in LA and began her drive in Santa Monica (the headean/assend of the mother road). It's 1968 or so, and I'm 8, sisters are 6 and 5.
We do the drive, pulling off the road every so often to take a shit/piss as mom demands. (To this day I stand and watch freeway traffic going by, remembering sitting at various gas stations at 5 am, and the mental picture is somehow fragmented. But I can vividly recall watching traffic at 5 am on Route 66.))
We stopped somewhere near Chicago and asked for directions to Grant's Park. The station owner brought out a map and carefully explained ho we had to get from 'here' to 'there'. We were all appreciative, and off we went to Chicago. We followed his directions to the T. We got to one town where the railroad board was down. A train was coming, and we sat for twenty minutes, waiting for the train, the first car in line went around the board. The the next, the third, the fourth, the fifth, then we get to the tracks. A huge buildling to the right blocks the view down the tracks. Mom waits a few minutes, then pulls around the railrod board. As she does, the Train Engine appears less than thirty feet away. It was idled, but our collective sphinckters got a huge, and immediate, release.
Mom, hit the gas, pulled over at some random gas station so we could all wipe ourselves clean (I think it was a 76 outift, extremely nice guy owning it, who checked our oil, water, gas, tire air while we were taking our 'holy fuck dumps'. (sisters had to wait, the place was only a one-holer).
Owner confirms Grant's Park directions. We head to Chicago
We get into the area of Grant's Park Illinois. Black people are out in force. We have absolutely no clue about what is going on. Mom is driving a 59 rambler through chicago with three kids, me 8, karen 6, lee ann 5. Black people surround us, for us kids, this was fascinating, at that point in our lives we'd have seen maybe, six black people in our entire live. These people start pounding the car, mom freaks, I didn't know then why. The car starts to get pumped back and forth. (Mom really freaks.) Car gets lifted and floats for about three blocks. (Mom goes insane).
We were let down somewhere relatively safe because, back then, there were still strong black families, strong black men, and strong black morals. And, as a white guy, I'd take 1960's black peoples morales in a second. They had an earned pride.
Today, I'll make my own morals, thank you, neither of the multiiple races have stepped up to provide any alternitive. So, sit back, and watch as your beliefs are overwhelmed, belittled, and negated. I'm a white guy, I assume fifth class position, You mexicans are going to be forth class position (unless you adopt islam).
We cannot accept this. When are you mexicans going to stand up in America and say fuck this!
I actually pity the blacks of today. They don't have fathers, by and large, with any sort of moral compass. And after 50+ years of Johnson's welfare,(I'll make those niggars vote democrat..) Shit, one hopes for a spark of light from the black community...just one, anyone. announce yourself. please. Call me whatever, but please get into the conversation.
Oh, by the way, we want to go to the TOWN of Grants Park in Illinois, about fifty miles osuth of Chicago,
You know a verbal assault on taxes is treason to the state. The very rock this stinking pile of debt rests upon.
Tax smerfs ought to be more careful.
Doubly so here at this honey pot site.
Remember, your words can and will be used against you.
Every word, every keystoke, saved for posterity.
fuck taxes, fuck the state, fuck the feds, fuck the national government, fuck the white house and that dick sucking bitch that stinks up the place. O or M take ur pick.
man that rant felt good and it's almost as powerful as "give me liberty or give me death." Who said that? must have been a fucking traitor.
Um, the last year I lived in Schenectady (before being driven out by their welfare state) my school taxes were almost $6,000/year. $271/month!? That would have been more than a 50% tax cut for me!
Seriously. Brooklyn-level property taxes and you get the pleasure of living in a housing project with 65,000 people in it! Who could turn that down!
I actually had a realtor tell me, "taxes are so high in Schenectady because they have a smaller population to support the city." That's like saying, "I don't have enough customers. I'll need to raise prices to make up the difference. Yeah, that'll WORK!"
Why exactly does anyone live in Chicago? Maybe you get a higher salary, but most of it gets eaten up with taxes and fees. Do you really come out ahead?
Of course, I've never figured out why anyone willingly lives in a city. Maybe it's me.
Every chicago person i met, left. The only one i met that stayed had herpes, tried to make her go eat the birthday cake in the bathroom.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pdov7l1V8xk
Title modification.
"I Pay $271 A Month To Schools And I Don't Have Kids": Illinois. Where did my taxpayer slush fund taypayer allowance up on the city's ledger?I stopped at living in Illinois...you have to be a fucking idiot to live in that state. If you are a farmer SELL your farmland while the bubble in still going.
America is screwed. You are bickering about educating the next generation. You expect those kids to fight in your army to protect your freedom. Hope they are motivated. The Chinese kids are.
There is no educating going on in U.S. public schools.
Perhaps a better term for them would be youth indoctrination centers.
Protect freedom,,, I served in Vietnam and I can guarantee you I wasn't protecting the freedoms of Americans 10,000 miles away,,, and neither are any of todays military.
Damn skippy.
Our main purpose was to provide a market for the smack the CIA was flying in from Laos. In 1971 there were more heroin addicts in the army in Vietnam than in the whole damned USA.
Didn't take long for me to be disabused of that "protecting American freedom" bullshit.
Do your 365 and try to get out in one piece so you can return to a grateful nation.
Horse shit!
Well the 240 or so private banks that are the FED get 6% return. Take the pensions public and have stock buybacks. Then give their stocks to the administrator.... That's the ticket... no new business or break up of education, TV, Pharmacy carrells... OKI OKI OKI
"Sweet Caroline" "Sweet Caroline" "Sweet Caroline" "Sweet Caroline"
No worries the state will pick up 70% of the bonds.....
Poor pension funds not getting 6% returns...
Seriously this is great comedy for the "biggest lies in the world" joke
Isn't general Dynamics in Chicago just order a nuke sub or F16 for every employee in Chi town.... Be safe and protected.. No bogey man with F16 on every block...
YOU WANTED IT YOU GOT IT all for me and none for all.... What happened to the 12 dollar minimum wage?
Illinois Treasurer Michael Frerichs: Roadmap to American Dream
A 100 day MA (Moving Average) challenge.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zQdLJiX83aE
Yeah he sounds good but full of fluff. Typical democrat bullshit.
Typical Liberal shithole....drown in the misery you created.
Illinois can start competing with TPP and lost pension fund trusts. Not a joke.
Ok, pension costs and taxes are out of control, I get that. However the headline of this article doesn't make a good argument. If people without kids don't pay school taxes then people without cars won'tpay for roads, people who live at high elevations won't pay for hurricane damage, people who don't fly won't pay taxes to fund the TSA or the FAA to keep bombs off planes and keep the planes from bumping into each other.
Unfortunately, this argument, as appealing as it sounds, leads to an even worse situation than taxes; like user fees that actually reflect the cost of a service spread out over the actual users. So, if you live in a sparsely populated state like South Dakota, do you really want to pay the whole cost of paving every highway in your state when most of the people and goods passing over those roads are going somewhere else?
Now back to education, you may not have kids but when you get sick you need a doctor, when you travel over a bridge you hope it was built by a qualified engineer and if you have to go to court you want a qualified judge, right?
A country without a good public education system is a country full of idiots.
Think about it.
we don't have a good public education system and we are a nation full of idiots who are paying a lot for teacher's pensions. the only reason we have public schools are because the protestants were jealous of the catholic schools some 150 years ago or so.
Public schools are a plank of the communist manifesto. At least the Russians were upfront about it and just burned all private schools to the ground. The statists in the U.S have taken a different approach and just tax the shit out of people so only kids of 2%ers or better can afford an alternative.
Joooos
No we are not a nation full of idiots. Highly populated maybe but not full. Speak for yourself as an idiot if you choose but do not include me in your group, thank you.
Well,,, that pretty well sums up the usa...
"A country without a good public education system is a country full of idiots. "
Since we have a country full of idiots I can sumarize that the public education system here sucks. So....we are paying for a POS school system.
You have a great argument from the position of someone who wants to consume more than they pay for on the backs of others. ZeroHedge and most commenters here are arguing from the position of productive members of society.
There are 2 solutions to the "problem" of the free shit army breeding out of control:
1. Taxes raising out of control to keep them "educated", so that they can breed more, so that you can pay more, and on and on.
2. Stop supporting them. Let them starve, kill each other off, or kill them yourself if necessary.
I wonder which of the two is a tenable, intelligent solution....
in the long run.....number 2
that certainly explains why the US is a country full of idiots.
I was just asked at the local grocery to donate to tools for schools. Told them I have no kids and have contributed more than enough.
Making it worse, the school will not even allow me to use the damn track.
Yah I got a call from the "We make six figure retirements and shoot and kill anyone we want boys in blue club". They were soliciting donations for some special club inside their "we are just here to raise money through traffic tickects for our retirement club." By law we are under no obligation to actually protect anyone. We also would like to accept a donation of any cash you have in your possesion during this traffic stop because I'm pretty sure your money has been in the hands of a drug dealer bank at some time and as such it's guilty.
Have a look at California Public Employees' Retirement System. The same to hit other major cities.
CalPERS' private equity investing fees are expected to be 'ginormous'
It's time to drop the hammer on the stupid Chicago population and just seize all assets. That's right. Just take whatever you need, gov. Call it the "Fair Pension Fulfillment Act", because they always call confiscation something that sounds palatable. What tickles me pink is that most people in Chicago will vote for and re-elect time after time the people who are going to pass the "Fair Pension Fulfillment Act". So I want to take up a small collection for bumper stickers for all the Chicago residents that they can proudly display on their leased cars: "I pay all my income in taxes, because it's fair". Good for you Chicago, and the whole state of Ill annoyed, too.
"Fair Pension Fufillment Act" Not even close. I can see you'd make a lousey politician.
A new Omni bill (Titled “SELECTED”) passed the senate today guarantying we will be able to provide fire and police and teachers for each and every citizen. It will also provide for continued funding of all retirement programs. The new combined multi discipline bill was named the "Security and Extended Lifespan Enhancements for Combined Taxpayer Energized Defenses” act.
Taxpayers, you have been “SELECTED”.
"We promised these niggers too much" Lindon Johnson on his death bed...
I pay several thousands of dollars of income tax and FICA loaned to the Treasury to support the MIC, but I've opposed every US war since 1960. So why's this fool squawking about $273 when he's paying thousands so some asshole who thinks he's paying a video game can kill women and children all over the Middle East?
Cut all tax paid employees wage scale and benefits back to 1975 parity with the prevaling wage of that day. Would that be too hard?
Back then I was a young man earning a tradesman's wage. We all had so much money that many of my friends took a wife to help them spend it all.
move
The public education system is working perfectly, precisely as designed and intended, better than its creators could have hoped.
A system that has by its own and society's professed criteria has failed absolutely, in every conceivable way, at enormous cost, declining by the year, faces no actual existential threat whatsoever.
Most of those complaining about the cost rather than the value are in fact products of this very system, hence my first sentence. A great education is priceless, and what you get in a public school is neither great nor an education.
The punishment for failing to obliterate such a truly vile institution is to bear its costs, both in taxes and in the effects of the "service" it expertly provides (perhaps even upon one's own children).
The future of any society that dares to treat its own children in such a manner is forfeit. If humans could brainwash their housepets, they would surely do so.
Please, visit any town usa 100 years ago. It was a cesspool of filth and stupidity, our problem today is that we have advanced as a civilization too fast... Our retard to intelligence ratio has widened beyond society's intellectual growth... 2 out 100 have the skills and brain power to keep up. Bart
BOO FUCKING HOO! I'm a rich bitch and I don't want to pay for the future of our children.
BOO FUCKING HOO!
Lol, wa-wa-wa.... I've worked hard all my life since age 17... My dad wouldn't "just give me money" like these shits expect today.. If I didn't mow the yard and clean the garage, I wouldn't have money for beer, pot and 20 sack of cocaine for the weekend.. Aaaahhh the 80's
To all your whiners - including the author of this article - I say, "keep voting democrat - it's working! Where they vote and then, vote again! lol
Meanwhile this might be a place to start -
States with No Income Tax
Alaska
Florida
Nevada
South Dakota
Texas
Washington
Wyoming
New Hampshire (except tax on income from interest and dividends)
Tennessee (except tax on income from interest and dividends)
Note, with the exception of Washington, the above states are considered "red" states. Coincidence? I think not.
By the way, writing an article about something everyone except those that are still under a rock know about isn't worth spit. What is, is proposing solutions to issue like this one. What? Had to write something - you were on deadline? Fail . . .
Yeah, but they tax the shit out of your property, they tax the value of the property which they set, goes up 10% a year or more unless you protest it...live in houston tx
FYI, all the Red States except Texas take more tax money from Washington than they pay in. In other words, they are on welfare. Texas would be on that list also, but they can pump money right out of the ground.
The Blue States that a lot of people despise are paying the tab.
Not true for those states, those states get their own money back for the resources and military bases claimed and used by the Feds. They are just getting their own money back for their own oil and corn ethanol, but with strings attached.
Things like the new NSA Center, Shale oil, fisheries, farm production, ethanol gas subsidies, Yucca Mtn to bury nuclear material, Area 51, Ft Sam Houston, Ft Hood, Lackland AFB, etc. Feds pass laws and then have to try to make them work and enforce them in those states.
The overly used odious "welfare red state" canard that socialists usually try to bring up are the deep south states, like MS, which have large black populations and the Feds force them to take money like SCOTUS just forced all states to take (illegal) Fed subsidies for Obamacare. This does not even account for the milllions of illegal aliens getting illegal subidies under that radar from the Feds.
So why don't those RED (Socialist Northern States) just invite and entice all those millions of blacks to your states? We'll gladly accept the consequently smaller federal revenue sharing. AssHat.
Coincidentally, Illinois condemned more young men to die in the Civil War than any other Union state.
Bigger bureaucracy = more cannon fodder.
I'm fond of drawing connections to the monetary and fiscal policy. These factors drive most of human behavior.
For example, in the past, public education was considered a good deal. It was a way of educating the next generation at low cost, and that next generation went on to help fund old people in retirement.
For example, an older person would be allowed to have savings, and those savings then became loans for young people. Young people through their mortgages would fund old people in retirement. Housing prices were held low as people had to save up a large percentage to even get a loan. Savings and loans in particular, were intermediated real money...they were not newly hypothecated credit, as in today's banking world.
Costs were kept low in public education, because a single wage earner could form a household. The rent taking overhead in society was much lower, and much of the economy was gift. Today, almost everything is monetized; this to pay ever expanding debts - which in turn is a functional output of the credit/debt bank system.
Since there was single wage households, women could volunteer in public schools. These women would keep an eye on things and not let them spiral out of control. Women in neighborhoods also kept crime low, and were a ready workforce to control children. This is why a non monetized society of this type can keep its doors unlocked, as social cohesion is much improved.
Allowing private credit banking to monetize everything, to then allow women to have to work, to then also immigrate "debt free" third world wage, to then export jobs as capital seeks low cost labor....
All of this is CRAZY.
Private Credit means has parasitized Western man's brain. The normal circuit breakers and feedback of a functioning society have been breached.
So, it is no wonder that people complain about paying for education, yet if one thinks about it, that is truly the one cost that a functioning society must bear. It must educate the next generation, or it will fail in one generation.
There is a generational compact implied, especially as one generation grows up receiving benefit, it is their obligation to pass that benefit onto the next.
Only, in these very strange times, mankind ihas entered into uncharted waters where finance has taken over, and society is upside down. The generational compact is broken, and livelyhood is exported. Meanwhile debt free labor is imported to then allow Oligarchy to feed further on the rotting corpse of the West due to rent seeking on wages. Debt free immigrants are also new fodder to create new credit against.
Thank you so much, our Jewish financial brain, you are the mensch.
Those who keep insisting that Russia is part of the Illuminist agenda need to think through their position carefully. Russia is paying their women to have babies, and they are keeping their debts in better control than the West. They also are not pleased with homosexual marriage, as it is considered a negative impact on a healthy functioning society. Orthodox Christianity is on the rise, and is encouraged by the State.
The western illuminist goal is closely aligned with Cabala, that is to illuminate society through Tikkun. Ultimately, of course, it is to rebuild the temple to house the messiah, who then will guide man. That goal, never stated, is funded through usury via private credit banking.
Races were not meant to be mixed...language, borders and culture are what makes a country...doesn't matter anyway, within 100 yrs we'll all be brown
If you're not willing to move, shut up! By the way, have they levied a tax on your gold??
Welcome to my Orwellian nightmare, except it's worse here in NY.
The rural districts around Rochester have to import angry black kids from the city, in order to keep the enrollment numbers up so the admins and unions can continue to soak up federal and state aid.
Whites around my age have moved their families one to two times since starting their families, in order to get away from the problems of the city. Enrollment drop in a rural district? Just import some angry black kids.
Worse, a districf up this way could see a drop of, say, 200 kids, YoY, and the fuckers still raise the taxes.
Fuckers.
Stop complaining. Make some crotchfruit or GTFO.
awwwwwwwww. i'm heartbroken...
I pay $397 and I home school in Seattle WA! WTF is his major problem? The fact of the matter is that it cost to be in a civil society. The paper fiat is used to keep the masses from becoming tribesmen.
He could always move to Greece and not pay taxes. Look where it's got them with that attitude. Those are facts, the mind of the masses will stay focused on something. The question is what is it that you would have them focus upon?
I can only possibly conclude that you are one of the fucking parasites.
I pay 3 times that and have no kids, money well spent.... as long as they don't use it for blowing up goat herders in the desert.
ever notice how public schools look more like detention centers
http://albainternazionale.blogspot.it/2015/08/la-moldavia-cerca-di-aggra...
CA has unfunded pension liabilities over $198B* http://www.dailynews.com/opinion/20141128/california-public-pensions-unf...
*2014, it's worse now
Buycaliforniabonds.Com
Those kids you're "paying for" will be future tax payers that will pay for your assistance in later age.
I think it's a good investment to make sure they're well educated.
I never visit a library, but it's a social service that I understand needs to be there for a multitude of reasons. I also don't have any disabilities, but I still pay for support in society for disabled people because it's the right thing to do.
I also hope I'll never need the fire service, but I'm willing to pay in case I do.
kieran, what time capsule did yu step out of??..wake up look around you are in prison brain washed and incredibly stupid..been on zh for over 3 yrs, your reading comprehension must be as low as ever recorded.
here's a little hint: "because it's the right thing to do" ..LOL you even think you know right from brain washed idiocy?? LOL
Mayberry.
In the USA the unions and government have taken over and destroyed the education system. The tax paid by the average citizen now goes to unsustainable union pay, pensions, top heavy administration and worse, to indoctrinate whole generations in the art of being a victim and little else. That is the real issue.
But the money isn't going to education and the kids.
That's the big lie and the fraud. The kids are the biggest losers because they're not getting an education and they still have to pay the odious debt in the future. Bang your drum the other direction.
You support theft since YOU think YOU have a right to STEAL my money for your social redistribution plans. Thou shall not steal. AND THAT'S ALL.
Some real idiocy .
Like the idiot who came on one of our late night Talk shows here in NL. (he was American)
The guy said ''Why should I have health insurance when I am healthy''?
The host said ''Yes, why should I have auto insurance when I am a good driver''
The American guy turned all red in the face and the audience howled with laughter.
The guy got up and left.
Fucking IDIOT.
heywood, one might ask: You do know insurance is a piece of paper, RIGHT?? with all that small print?
insurance co's are doing outright theft, and you think you even have a clue..look in the mirror pal you will see sucker of the year.
Hey fuckface, don't buy insurance and I can come visit you and Bubba in prison. Or you could be like the drunk guy who rear ended me when I lived in the USA. he had No insurance and I sued him BIG TIME and WON>
Posting the same thing over and over does not change your ignorance.
Ignorant is YOU, dumbo.
I have lived in 5 countries and the USA is the worst place to live.
How fucking old are you kid?
You drive a car? Every country I have lived in requires auto insurance.
Every country here requires you have health insurance.
I pay 90 Euros a month for health insurance (unlimited) with a 375 annual deductible.
Thats for health care 10 times better than in the USA. NO waiting EVER.
Thank you for showing what a true fucktard you are.
NO wonder your shithole country looks more 3rd world everyday with knuckledragging shitheads like you in it.