I’m not going to link all the feel good stories about getting taxed more to give a pay raise to people who work 9 months out of the year to educate children that are not mine.
I already pay their wages with my property taxes.
I figured as a single dude I will paying about $130 more a year in regressive retail taxes so a certain sector of our South Dakota society can make more then me, though I work just as hard.
Do I think teachers deserve more pay. Hell Yah! But I also think balancing ag taxes with urban property taxes would fill this gap. I also think a corporate education income tax would fill this gap.
Why is it that the poorest among us should fill a gap that can be fixed by re-organizing or re-porposing current taxes could fix?
The governor’s plan is not only short-sighted it is directly targeted at the have-nots to pay for the things the rich don’t want to. Not only should the governor and his minions be ashamed at such a half-ass plan, but anyone drooling over it should be to.
We can do better in South Dakota. Tax wealth to educate our children. It only makes sense.
I order everything on the web and try to buy nonperishable groceries when I pass Worthington Minnesota. It was a personal protest. Since, I’ve discovered it’s cheaper, better selection/quality, and delivered free WITHOUT SALES TAX. Increasing sales tax is dangerous. Frugal health care and call center workers (most of us) discovered this option. It’s very possible a higher tax rate will be the same or less revenue.
Agreed.
You come off very petty. Were you educated in the public school system? If so, wasn’t someone who had no children paying for your education? “Poor” people can’t pay for educating our youth? Why the backhanded comment about paying for people who “only work 9 months” and paying for teaching “others children”? I agree with you on a lot of things but you lost me on this one. You come off jealous. What’s sad, is that your sounding jealous of an underpaid profession.
I couldn’t agree more on balancing other tax revenues. I love how the same people that bleed their school colors wouldn’t approve an opt out. There are towns that are 10-15 miles apart that all have k-12. Maybe the state needs to get more creative with school district boundaries and start consolidating.
I won’t argue that teacher pay in SD is abismal but so is pay in a lot of other sectors when compared to the rest of the nation.
It’s guys like Dan that drive up the taxes on the rest of us. Take and take but don’t pay your own. SAD
So mr E your all for raising wages, including the minimum wage but you don’t think you should have to be a part of paying for that? Another self centered liberal.
Carmel, I think teachers deserve more money, just like other professional sectors in SD. But the solution is not to tax the working stiffs more. That is my point. The state is swimming in revenue ideas besides raising taxes. They could eliminate exemptions and make ag property taxes the same as urban. We could probably raise so much money we would have some left over for criminal justice and infrastructure. My sarcasm stems from all the people who think this is a ‘good idea’ and just go along with it. It’s a bad idea, and is actually kind of lazy. If I were a teacher I would ask for a better funding solution, seriously. This is just a short term patch.
how long before Sanford and Avera come with their hands out wanting a piece of this tax?
Pennington County just voted down the adoption of a wheel tax that would have made additional funds for road and bridge repair from the state available to them. Not many self centered liberals in Pennington are there?Beadle County voted down a wheel tax increase. So has Brown County. Many more school bond issues fail than pass. I don’t see much enthusiasm for raising taxes in SD from taxpayers.
No No No Mr Reliable. Your cherry picking your argument. My point is he wants someone to pay for it. Just not him. I’ll bet your from the same ilk.
Have you seen the numbers of administration staff per student these days. Disgraceful!!! We can pay teachers more by cutting staff who DON’T teach.
Lastly it’s a bit hard for the working stiff to swallow a 9 month a year public employee making the same if not more than him. Teachers need to teach year round if they want year round wages Theres no reason we can’t have classes for college prep classes. This will lower the cost of a college education. And that Spanish emersion thats growing in popularity could be taught in the summer as well.
If you want working stiff wages, you need a working stiff schedule. AND don’t tell me you don’t really have a summer off with all those “certifications” you work on in the summer. I have 3 teachers in my family and I know how much they “work” in the summer.
The money for teacher pay should come first from the general revenue fund. If or to the degree that is not enough, the difference should be made up through an expansion of the current franchise tax.
The top growth industry in this state over the last thirty five years, banking, has been subjected to this tax without it stymieing its growth. It is time the rest of the corporate world in this state live in the reality that banking has been doing for years and pay up.
I am sick of the growing indifference among many on the left towards the obvious regressiveness of our current sales tax system and our dependency upon it. If we are not taxing the working poor with legalized gambling and constantly increasing fees we seem to be entertaining the idea of increased sales taxes, which hurt the poor the most.
If the Democrats in South Dakota are going to constantly complain about wages in this state, then it is disingenuous as a party for us to be trying to put money in one of the pockets of the working poor, while we are looking for coinage from the other pocket.
We also need to think about restructuring our entire tax system to the extend it is dependent upon fees and have ones established income, based on their Federal 1040, determine what if any fee they would pay on government services and tickets (everybody would pay something on misdemeanor tickets). A millionaire in South Dakota who gets a speeding ticket should have a fine which is proportional to their income and far more than the ticket a working class guy would get with his rusty ’76 firebird doing 85 in a 65…
We also need to reestablish a 6 instead of a 3% tax on new car sales and exempt more of the used car sales from this tax. We also need to revisit property tax relief and have value and income of the occupant to be taken into consideration.
This is not a time for us to be regressive just to help the teachers. It is time to be progressive in helping the teachers and their pupils’ parents too!….
I know many teachers across the state, personally and professionally, and I can confirm they work more than 9 months a year! We need to get over this 9 month work schedule. A GOOD teacher will put in a lot more hours a week than you or I will. There is a lot more going on behind the scenes of the “School Day.” If they are a GOOD teacher they are doing inservices, conferences, and schooling during their period of off time. Like I said, this is for the GOOD teachers. To keep these GOOD teachers you need to pay them or you end up with ok teachers who just put in the time and leave.
Pay the Teachers!
While I got chewed out today at Democratic Forum for my comments about the 9 month work period, that is fine. I do agree teachers deserve more pay, but it is reality they work 9 months out of the year. Maybe they work more hours per week then the rest of us, but it doesn’t change the fact that it is true. While I appreciate the criticism, you still can’t hide from the facts. If it were up to me, school would be all year long with different breaks throughout the year. If teachers and administrators consider teacher pay a ‘yearly salary’ maybe they should be working that full 12 months. Not just the educational aspects of having better students comes from all year school, the economic impact of parents saving money on summer day care is huge. I got the feeling while being chastised about my comments, that teachers want to work all year (I’m guessing not) many teachers I know enjoy their summer’s off. Some use it to further their education, to travel, to have a hobby or to work for extra income, good for you.
Like I said, teachers deserve more money, but don’t deny the facts that the rest of us in this state deserve a raise also.
LJL – my point is South Dakota voters don’t want to pay for increasing teacher salaries.
Election results from 2012:
INITIATED MEASURE 15: AN INITIATED MEASURE TO INCREASE STATE GENERAL SALES AND USE TAXES FOR ADDITIONAL K-12 PUBLIC EDUCATION AND MEDICAID FUNDING. – STATE
Follow This Contest
Precincts Reporting: 735/735 Precincts Partially Reporting: 0/735
County Level Results
Votes Percent
Yes 151,498 43.27%
No 198,586 56.73%
I don’t disagree Reliable.
Your not fooling anyone “Be a part”
Speaking of teachers, did a certain infrequent poster here and band teacher get caught sexting a student this week?
I do know there was a guy from the SD symphony that would comment here, but I don’t ever recall this teacher commenting here.
I guess we are not the only state with the stupid idea of funding education with sales tax. The Okie’s rank 49th in the nation for per/student funding.
http://www.oudaily.com/news/boren-teachers-start-petition-for-education-sales-tax/article_36a133b8-782d-11e5-a788-1fb1425c3f6e.html
LJL-Have you been inside a school lately? The classrooms are busting at the seems. You can’t just come on here and argue we can increase teacher pay by cutting non-teaching roles. All those roles play an important part of the school day. Some of the elementary grade levels have 25 to 28 students in them. Do you know how hard it is to keep 25 first graders on task? I doubt it if you are just flying off the handle and say eliminate non-teaching roles.