Hey! That's Madison's Matt Groce joining a bunch of other parents on TV to tell you we need to invest more in education!
Well done, Matt!
This video comes from the Moving South Dakota Forward campaign, which placed Initiated Measure 15, the extra-penny sales tax to fund K-12 education and Medicaid, on the November ballot.
Nothing makes you feel like a star more than like the makeup lady needing to re-powder your bald head.
$180,000,000 more in taxes from poor people like me going only into special interest groups?
I say, how can I get my penny tax on all of you going just to my fun zones?
Education and health care aren't exactly "special interest groups." Giving kids a good education helps everyone. It keeps the economy and democracy functioning. Providing health care for the poor meets a fundamental moral (Christian? American? Pick your moral bedrock!) obligation to keep people alive, well, and (now the pragmatic justification) able to continue working to feed their families and sustain the economy... not to mention curing illness so poor folks don't sneeze on me and make me sick ;-). We're not talking farm subsidies for rich "farmers" like Kristi Noem. We're talking basic social functions that directly benefit pretty much everyone.
How about this? The tax increase is passed. Republican legislators redo other state laws and pull existing funding out for other purposes. Taxpayers end up with an even more regressive sales tax and education gets nothing more than before. Republicans and Mitt gain complete control and do away with medicare and medicaid in there desire to return to 1929.
More money ends up in hands of special interests and the tax increase is just another tax increase much in the format of all the gambling revenue that was supposed to go to education.
I thought you were a special interest group, Grudz?
My fear is the same as yours, Doug.
In a somewhat unrelated note, I had to click on a Newsmax poll, that asked what the best plan was to cut the deficit:
a) Raise taxes
b) Cut spending
c) Cut taxes and cut spending
d) Raise taxes and raise spending
What's wrong with this idiotic poll? (For Republicans, I'll give you the answer, the correct answer, raises taxes and cut spending isn't offered in order to get people to vote for the nonsensical option c)
It's gonna be a hard sell, folks. I'm still on the fence. The cruel irony is that the only real thing stopping my vote for it is my fear that my own Republican colleagues will change the law in a year or three, education will get nothing more than it does now, and every South Dakotan will simply be a little but poorer.
A few years ago South Dakotans added a tax on tobacco and where does that money go? Certainly not where it was suppose to go! Any new tax should have the language written into the law that the revenue raised by the new tax cannot go to any other budgetary item, period.
Steve, this law has that language. Is it tight enough to ensure no shifting of money?
There is this statement on the groups website.
"Voters can be assured that revenue generated by the measure will be invested in children, seniors, and disadvantaged in our state."
I think that with an honest look at our State Governments past actions the only thing we can really be assured of, is that the legislature will change this law down the road if it is passed.
Within a few years this money will become replacement money for schools rather than new money. The legislature will take out other support from the budget and plug this in instead. This regressive tax increase will serve to keep Republicans in power for another generation talking about how they are balancing the budget every year. It will also make it easier to give corporate handouts of taxpayer money because the pool of available funds will be greater.
Dang, R: does that reasoning mean we can't support any revenue increase for the state?
Sending folks to Pierre who are actually concerned about Education and Medicaid = Good Idea
Giving the current folks in Pierre more tax money to manipulate as they please = Bad Idea
Speaking of manipulation:
"the extra-penny sales tax"
Sounds like it is a small thing. The truth: it is a 25% increase that will total nearly $200 million increase in a tax system that the left calls regressive. And the money will not go to the teachers or the children, it will go to the system of control that is being developed under the deception NCLB waiver, Obama's way to bypass Congress on the reauthorization (you now it is suppose to be every 5 years, so it is 5 years late in coming). "The Plan" is for the states to implement the federal plan without the need to renew every 5 years at the federal level. It will now become permanent at the state level. UNESCO will centrally plan and control America.
Wow, Sibby, that is a doozy of a conspiracy even for you.
and anyway: so what, sibby?
oh yeah: mark o' the beast.
Support whatever revenue increase you want, Cory. Just do it with your eyes wide open, looking beyond the promises. Remember the video lottery promises?
SD has over $100 million in a health care trust fund and over $375 million in an education enhancement trust fund. We need a tax increase for education and medicaid? The GOP is fine with losing over $100 million from the education enhancement fund in the stock market in FY 08 &09, but spend a fraction of that on schools? Nah!
Mr Sibson does have an interesting thought on his post.
The sales tax is a regressive tax that imposes a greater burden on the poor. By passing initiative 15 we are asking those who can least afford the tax increase to pay more to finance a health care system that most need, and an educational system that is not set up to help them or their children escape their situations.
Is that fair?
and anyway: so what, sibby?
Go to the link and watch the 4 minute YouTube piece on the World Core Curriculum:
http://trueteaching.blogspot.com/2011/08/unesco-world-core-curriculum-and-global.html
someone crazier than we are?
SD actually had about $125 million in stock market losses to the education enhancement trust fund in FY 2008 & FY 2009. The Healthcare trust fund lost $29 million to the stock market in that time. Someone should be asking the question whether investing in SD where the money will turn over in our economy multiple times creating SD jobs is a better plan.
The wonderful thing about sales tax rate increases is that every time they raise them, the next time they raise them a penny, the percentage increase is less. Start with one cent and add a penny and it is a 100% increase. Start with six and another is only a 17% or so increase. Steve is correct that talking about only a 1 cent increase is a form of deceptive advertising.
Mr. H, if you promise me that Sanford won't build any monuments and no school will put any of this massive tax increase on me into its reserve bank fund and good teachers like you will get raises then I will vote for this.
I'm for 1.2.3.4 because it sets up raises for good teachers. This massive tax increase on me just gives greedy administrators more to hoard or spend without having to be accountable for it. BAH I say!
Interesting Cory, that the same GOP you so distrust on most issues, you are now willing to stake a 180mil bet on them handling our money in a way some how differently on ed, than they have done on the past. Hmmmm....you're not blogging from the Back Porch are you?
Les, I haven't been into the Back Porch yet. Do they have wireless?
Read carefully, Les: have I yet endorsed IM 15? I'm still thinking about it. Honest. My question to R is an honest one: if we don't/can't trust the Republican leadership in Pierre, does that mean we refuse to approve any new revenue? Or do we change the leadership?
I'm sorry if I misinterpreted an anxious attitude for ed money as support on IM15 Cory.
Rorscach and Wiken are right on the money with this issue.
I think with the right leadership there will be money issues however increasing taxes with decreasing purchasing power at all levels just turns the screw tighter. Cuts are the only way out.
What cuts are you talking about Les? We had a $50 mm surplus last year.
Those numbers are very puzzling. 150mil, 50mil. Where is the 100mil. State retirement health care not fully funded. Highway Patrol overfunded with ARA money. Duplication of 2ndary ed and a barn full of issues on primary ed starting at the top with admin costs. Those are just a few of the many cuts coming. I believe every dept has room for cuts and cuts will come whether by choice or by having no alternatives.