The following article in the HJ News says that the Cache County School District increased our property tax yet again. These Morons don't have a clue. If they were a private school, they would have to deal with what they have. My kids will go to a private school! In the mean time, we should get things changed so that people can get a full across the board Tax refund if they pull their kids out of public schools. Let the government run brain washing schools compete like the rest of us schmucks have to do in the real world. Every time they have a failure (which is all the time) they just steal more money from people who actually have to work for a living!!! They just spend money like it comes from trees. I'm so sick of all these local Taxing authorities around here. They are Communists all! People in Logan, Cache Valley and Utah in general better wake up and say enough or there will not be private property of any type. People can't afford to live as it is! The public school system is a dismal failure and should be treated as such. Those in any form of Government who like to Tax and spend our money on Socialist ideas should be voted out of office. They are as anti American as it gets. If you can't tell right now, I'm very pissed off about this as I and everyone else should be!
Utah is the 4th highest Taxed State in the Nation!!! Does this mean anything to anyone? Most of us have been taught that wasting money is a bad thing. I can't think of any other place where money gets wasted more than in our local schools and other government run garbage! They are always sitting around with their big USU degrees making $150,000 salaries while thinking of ways to screw us! They just did it again. I wonder which one will be next, Logan City? Cache County? Bear River Health Department? USU?.............
The article starts below here.
Cache school revenue increase OK’d
By Emilie H. Wheeler 8/5/06
NORTH LOGAN — The Cache Board of Education approved a revenue increase that will boost many people’s property taxes Thursday night, but not without hearing several frustrated and angry appeals from county residents.
The total tax levy rate will actually decrease from .00651 to .006484, but because of reappraised homes and businesses and new development the district will take in roughly $1 million more in revenue.
District officials oversee the rate for two of the six categories, with state leaders controlling the other levies that cumulatively make up the $1 million revenue increase.
A portion of the money from those two areas — special transportation and a 10 percent share of basic levy rates — will send around $800,000 toward fuel costs, new school buses and textbooks.
Of those board members present, all but one voted for the tax levy; member Jonathan Jenkins voted against it.
Member Tamara Grange said although the board has “real compassion” for those whose taxes will go up, the options have been weighed for alternative methods of finding money — at least for this year.
“It’s hard to sit in this chair and raise your taxes,” she said. “We are working at these things. Change sometimes comes a lot slower than (we want it to).”
Based on an ad the district was required by law to publish in The Herald Journal before the hearings, taxes will be $28.05 more on a $150,000 home than they would be had the district allowed its rates to decrease as they would naturally.
The motion is classified as a tax increase despite the fact that the overall tax rate will decrease. Tax rates typically decline automatically on an annual basis, because property tax money from new growth maintains a constant level of revenue the district bases its budget on. Like other taxing entities in the valley, including the Logan School District, Cache district is legally obligated to hold of Truth in Taxation hearing for residents to voice their opinions about the change.
This is the first year in about seven that the district has either held a hearing or raised its revenue through property taxes. During those years it has held bond elections to raise money for buildings.
Some of those who showed up Thursday said the school district is wasting its money and should put a cap on how much it is allowed to spend.
“The people in this school system have no common sense,” Smithfield resident Merlin Humpherys said. “I think somewhere down the line we need to put a cap on the school system. ... Everybody is too cotton-picking complacent they won’t do anything.”
Others said the problem with taxes is bigger than just the school district.
Providence resident Chuck Bateman said the issue resides in how property is assessed.
“This (school board) isn’t where the problem lies,” he said. “They’re just like you sitting out here. ... The problem lies with the structure of the whole system.”
Bateman encouraged others to initiate a grass-roots endeavor to change the way property is appraised, but warned that it was an intricate system that almost no one knows the entire workings of.
Most of the people who showed up at the hearing received a notice indicating their taxes would be increasing, although some — like district Business Administrator Dale Hansen — will see their taxes decrease because their homes haven’t been appraised to increase the assessed values. The county re-assesses homes and businesses in groups from year to year.
Many of those present at the hearing said they didn’t think they were being heard, charging that the board had made up their minds about the tax levy before the hearing ever started.
No constituents showed up at any district meetings where the budget was discussed. The district posts agendas on its Web site and in The Herald Journal.
Superintendent Steve Norton said the meeting was not held beforehand — as some suggested — because the law dictates the hearing and vote is done at this time of the year. The budget, however, is decided in May and June. Norton and board members suggested constituents attend those meetings — which are open — to give feedback about the district’s spending policies.
“We’re aware of the problems,” Grange said. “Sometimes what we need more is some good solutions.” |