Veronica v. Religinuts
Aug. 12th, 2005 02:01 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
veronica_richI covered a local government meeting tonight.
I've been covering small government for over 11 years. I've seen councils, commissions, school boards, you name it; I've seen justified pay increases, unjustified expenditures, graft, outright stealing, everything. Tonight's meeting was quite a bit of fun.
Long story short: The council was passing its yearly budget. In order to finance the increases, it had to pass a tax rate increase, which it has never done in damn near 20 years - the price of waiting so long is it shot up like 20 percent, instead of doing it a few cents each year or two over time. Property owners in the area are damn near having heart attacks.
The bulk of this money is going to local schools - basic salaries, operations, that sort of thing. (One public official noted aloud that families who move into the area with children cost more in public money than they bring in. I think I love him.)
This is certainly a breederific, God-fearing, Republican-lovin' area, just so you understand what we're dealing with. There were some people there who were protesting the tax hike, including one councilman (who ended up voting against it), whom I'll call X, whose basic premise was something like "well geez, I had kids in the school system and I think education's important, but this seems very steep." Translation: "I want to run for office again next year and WIN, and my kids are no longer in school, so who cares?"
Another councilwoman comments that yes, the kids need education, but what about their parents having to pay more taxes? (It's times like this I show my professionalism at work: I managed to take notes instead of standing up and pointing out PLENTY of us have no children, anticipate none, and still have to pay for public schools.) I have a revolutionary, basic idea, folks: If you aren't willing to fork up for their education, DON'T FUCK AND GET KNOCKED UP AND KEEP IT.
I also couldn't help thinking, on a purely personal note, that most of the people who bitch their property taxes are about to go up a few hundred dollars are the same fuckfruits who happily put Bush back in office after he pissed away $80 billion-plus in taxpayer money unsuccessfully invading a foreign nation. (Gee, why do you THINK your taxes are going up so much? Could it possibly be the federal government isn't giving your state - and in turn, city - as much money as it used to get because it's being funneled to Haliburton and Lockheed-Martin?)
But the best part of all of it was this: The realization for these people that the reason taxes are going up SO much is FOR THE CHILDREN. Period. What makes this humorous is the overwhelming anti-choice, religious mindset most people in this community have - not everyone, but the vast majority, I would observe.
On a final note: Two weeks ago, X e-mailed out something having to do with publicly-funded daycare, questioning the use of tax money for this. I made some reply that if Roe v. Wade is overturned, he ought to get used to more publicly-funded daycare *needing* to be available. He (correctly) interpreted my stance on the choice issue and made some condescending religous reply about how he was glad my mother hadn't held to the practice of abortion, to which I replied (again, quite correctly) that I had not expressed an opinion, merely pointed out a fact not many people are considering whey they make both the anti-choice and "don't touch my tax dollars!" argument. So tonight, after the meeting, I couldn't resist - I went up to him, smiling, and said, "I told you kids cost money, didn't I?"
I've been covering small government for over 11 years. I've seen councils, commissions, school boards, you name it; I've seen justified pay increases, unjustified expenditures, graft, outright stealing, everything. Tonight's meeting was quite a bit of fun.
Long story short: The council was passing its yearly budget. In order to finance the increases, it had to pass a tax rate increase, which it has never done in damn near 20 years - the price of waiting so long is it shot up like 20 percent, instead of doing it a few cents each year or two over time. Property owners in the area are damn near having heart attacks.
The bulk of this money is going to local schools - basic salaries, operations, that sort of thing. (One public official noted aloud that families who move into the area with children cost more in public money than they bring in. I think I love him.)
This is certainly a breederific, God-fearing, Republican-lovin' area, just so you understand what we're dealing with. There were some people there who were protesting the tax hike, including one councilman (who ended up voting against it), whom I'll call X, whose basic premise was something like "well geez, I had kids in the school system and I think education's important, but this seems very steep." Translation: "I want to run for office again next year and WIN, and my kids are no longer in school, so who cares?"
Another councilwoman comments that yes, the kids need education, but what about their parents having to pay more taxes? (It's times like this I show my professionalism at work: I managed to take notes instead of standing up and pointing out PLENTY of us have no children, anticipate none, and still have to pay for public schools.) I have a revolutionary, basic idea, folks: If you aren't willing to fork up for their education, DON'T FUCK AND GET KNOCKED UP AND KEEP IT.
I also couldn't help thinking, on a purely personal note, that most of the people who bitch their property taxes are about to go up a few hundred dollars are the same fuckfruits who happily put Bush back in office after he pissed away $80 billion-plus in taxpayer money unsuccessfully invading a foreign nation. (Gee, why do you THINK your taxes are going up so much? Could it possibly be the federal government isn't giving your state - and in turn, city - as much money as it used to get because it's being funneled to Haliburton and Lockheed-Martin?)
But the best part of all of it was this: The realization for these people that the reason taxes are going up SO much is FOR THE CHILDREN. Period. What makes this humorous is the overwhelming anti-choice, religious mindset most people in this community have - not everyone, but the vast majority, I would observe.
On a final note: Two weeks ago, X e-mailed out something having to do with publicly-funded daycare, questioning the use of tax money for this. I made some reply that if Roe v. Wade is overturned, he ought to get used to more publicly-funded daycare *needing* to be available. He (correctly) interpreted my stance on the choice issue and made some condescending religous reply about how he was glad my mother hadn't held to the practice of abortion, to which I replied (again, quite correctly) that I had not expressed an opinion, merely pointed out a fact not many people are considering whey they make both the anti-choice and "don't touch my tax dollars!" argument. So tonight, after the meeting, I couldn't resist - I went up to him, smiling, and said, "I told you kids cost money, didn't I?"
