Way To Protect Marriage, Tennessee!!!
Okay. Here's what I don't get. The number one stressor facing any marriage is NOT the homosexuality of some random person on the street.
No. The number one stress on any marriage is finances.
So, what do we do? We appear to be voting in favour of the property tax freeze initiative for those over 65.
Do you realise what this means?
Yes, it means your county will be free to initiate a new law that would freeze the property taxes for senior citizens. If you are 65, you don't have to pay any more property tax than what you had to pay the day you turned 65. Bonus for all those old people out there.
But honestly, this means if you are UNDER 65 you are going to have to help the county come up with the money it is no longer getting from Grandma and Grandpa. The county will recoup its losses by raising property taxes across the board. Since you and your wife and three young children are all under 65, guess what YOU get to do! Isn't this exciting?!
So you know all those arguments you are already having about whether or not you can afford to take the kids to CiCi's Pizza after Jared's Little League game? You will be having more of them. Those little tiffs about which utility bill is more important this month will become more frequent. That mortgage you are already struggling to pay will go up when the county tacks on an extra couple hundred dollars to help pay for the Silver Tax Break. Sure, it'll only come out to $30 a month. What's that? One tank of gas. One basic cable bill. One birth control prescription.
Congratulations, my fellow Tennesseans. You just voted yourselves a tax increase.
posted by Kat Coble @ 10:32 PM
11 comments
11 Comments:
Good call.
When are you going to run for office, Kat? :)
I know that it means more taxes for me. I did it for the folks like my Mom who is 76, has a terminal disease (whick equals a med bill of nearly $1500/mo. that insurance doesn't cover) and only makes $756 a month. I'll be glad to take up the slack. I'll either pay property taxes or med bills one way or the other.
And a clarification-the amendment allows cities to freeze property taxes for low-income seniors only, not everyone over 65. The General Assembly will set an income ceiling for qualifying seniors, cities will be able to set their own even lower.
We had a similar amendment in GA, which I voted against.
I'll give them a break on their taxes when I can invest my own Social Security money. Fuckers.
Cheryl,
I applaud your willingness to help out your mom, and I'm truly sorry for her situation. However, which sounds like the better solution: you having more money in your pocket with which you can help your mom or the government taking more of everyone's hard-earned cash and deciding who deserves a break?
I've got a mother who lives out of state, is on a fixed income and has high medical expenses every month. Unfortunately, it looks like I may be slightly less able to help shoulder her financial burdens because the government can now decide that it's better for me to help underwrite a tax break for your mother and a bunch of other senior citizens in Tennessee.
You see, this amendment isn't just about more taxes for you. It's about more taxes for everyone under 65 who may already be trying to help out specific people who really need it, not just some broad demographic group that the government has arbitrarily deemed to be more deserving of your money than you are.
I mostly agree with Kat here (although it's a little tough when your parents have to sell their paid-for house because they can't afford the property taxes), but I'll slip into la-la land here.
Everybody's talking about a tax increase to make up the difference. There's another side of the ledger, even though nobody wants to admit it's there. Localities could cut spending to make up the difference.
Of course, then we'd have to deal with hyperbole about starving poor people, uneducated children, death, destruction and pestilence that generally follow spending cuts. (Hey, how bout not putting in a second light in Fairview? Do y'all REALLY need it?)
Anyway, back to reality.
You know, I'm a lib but I'd most likely vote for you if you ran for office, Kat.o
I have more than just the reason of my mother that I voted for it. Everyone knows that Social Security is going to belly up. When these seniors lose their homes and have no family to turn to for support, where are they going mostly to live? Publicly subsidized housing?
Everyone has their own opinion and that's especially makes blog comments interesting. I just feel that I have a greater chance at changing major factors in my life than seniors do at this point. Age 65 gets closer everyday.
Slartibartfast said: "Everybody's talking about a tax increase to make up the difference. There's another side of the ledger, even though nobody wants to admit it's there. Localities could cut spending to make up the difference."
WHY THAT IS CRAZY TALK!!!!
*passes out*
Let's see ... we've already got a municipal/regional gov't here that's too broke to buy enough voting machines. One precinct over from me, the last person on line didn't get to vote until 11 last night. (I could go with conspiracy theories about it, except that I understand that several precincts in much wealthier parts of town had lines of people who didn't get to vote until 10. No, I think there wasn't enough money in the budget to buy enough voting machines.) I know there's not enough money in the budget to hire enough workers to man all the stations at the Motor Vehicles place near me -- the average wait there is 2 hours. There's not enough money to do half the things people expect the city gov't to do. Just where is the budget fat that's supposed to get cut?
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