Uh, sure. It's all about taxes. Every difference between here and Europe can be attributed to taxes. Because, after all, taxes are the single most important thing in life. I am? I don't think I am. I'm saying the current level isn't sufficient. Of course we could cut it more. We could cut it to zero. It's not zero yet. Cut just a little bit more... cut a little bit more... cut just a little bit more... cut just a bit more...pretty soon little Johnny is too ignorant to do anything but steal the shit you worked so hard to accumulate. barfo
The measures passed, but I think they will still pass the bill to give inmates more early release time, if they haven't already done so. I also think the way they will find to educate kids is to cut educational days in the majority of school districts. In Eugene the school district had to to cut about $20M last year. There was stimulus money (about $8M, I think) to save a lot of teachers jobs. That meant they 'only' had to cut $12M. The district released most of their reserves, about $4M, so they only had to cut $8M. Those cuts came from retirements, layoffs, furlough days (I think 3, of which one was a day when kids were supposed to attend) and pay freezes for administrators. It's looking like the district will have to cut somewhere around the same amount this year. So far as I know, there is still next to nothing in the reserves, and (so far) no stimulus money offered for saving teacher jobs. It really doesn't look good. Go Blazers
Everyone in Oregon is cutting...except for the Government. As for spending and test results, they don't track very well. DC spends as much per student as it costs to attend Deerfield and they're not turning out a great product. Sometimes, the answer isn't to spend more, but to use that money more wisely.
Sometimes, yes. But not all the time. Do you have any evidence at all that that's the answer here in Oregon? barfo
We've continued to raise taxes to pay higher and higher amounts to "educate" our students and we haven't seen significant if any improvement. Perhaps throwing money at the problem isn't the solution. Perhaps we should try something different.
Like what? And have we really "continued to raise taxes"? The property tax has risen, 3% per year max. The income tax has just been raised (on a few of us) for the first time since I don't know when. The business tax was just raised for the first time since the 30s. The sales tax is still 0%. Multnomah county did have a temporary income tax for 3 years. That to me doesn't seem like a long record of raising taxes. If anything it seems like the opposite. barfo
"Pay and benefits" may be the cost of each employee to the employer, in this case the government. I used to include them in the expense account called Payroll Expense. These can include almost anything. Company liability insurance. Industrial insurance paid to the state. Unemployment insurance paid to the state. FICA, Social Security, Medicare, FUTA paid to the Federal Government. City and State income tax, employer's portion. I didn't include the following employee costs. Utilities. Rent. Mortgage on the work building. Lunch facilities. Rest rooms. Janitorial salary to clean the workplace. Repaving their parking lot. Now my imagination is getting into this, just like the Wall Street Journal liars. The boss. That's right, his salary is an employee expense, since he wouldn't be necessary without anyone to supervise. His boss. That's right, oh I don't want to type it again. How about the limo for the company president. That wouldn't be necessary if not for, uh, I'm really stretching this, but the employees. The point is that except for direct manufacturing costs (procuring the metal to make widgets), all expenses can be viewed as ultimately employee costs. The government doesn't manufacture anyway, so 100% can be categorized by the lying Wall Street analyst into the $83,000.
Are you saying the standard of living in France, Germany, and Britain is lower than here? Yes, they work less, but they have all the things we have, because their system is efficient. The US is dropping from #1 to #3, after Europe and China. The Euro continues to move farther and farther ahead of the dollar. We would be as advanced as Europe if not for the political influence of the American South.
I know that is what Lars says. Either you skipped my post about the Eugene SD cutting last year, and again this year, or you don't believe it. They will have big cuts to make next year, too. If the Eugene SD is cutting, I'd bet that virtually every SD in the state is cutting. School spending is 40 some percent of the budget I think. How is that government not cutting? Go Blazers
My taxes to the City of LO, Clackamas County and the State have continued to increase every year, beyond the rate of inflation. There's a reason the only sector of the Oregon economy that's growing is the public sector. They have to find a way to pay for all those jobs, benefits and future pensions. California is a beacon for us telling us to head down a different path, yet we follow along like a lemming. It's time to shrink the size and scope of services the State offers. If you force people to fend for themselves, they generally find a way.
