Taxpayers
Taxes, fees, penalties and hidden charges
When someone dedicates themselves to making other people poor,
and pleasures themselves by making others poor -
the people they make poor - begin to feel like minorities,
even though poor-people are (is?) the single largest people-group in the world.
There are many groups, companies and organizations who strive
to see how much money they can take from others for the sake of their own wealth.
We will discuss a few of them here, those that we can identify.
There are many who operate in secret, off-screen from our radars.
california fires destroying California homes
Property taxes
There are certain things that people need done collectively, that they can't do on their own. Roads, for example. Imagine living in the snow belt, without city, county or state snowplows. What if part of the price for having a street in front of your home - meant that each homeowner or tenant had to get out at 5am and scoop the snow off their section of the road whenever it snowed, even on Christmas day. This is when collectivism is an asset.
This piece of collectivism has to be funded, usually through property taxes/fuel taxes.
Another big piece of the community puzzle is fire safety.
What is very unfair, is when property taxes pay government employee and elected official salaries, then those employees and officials fail the taxpayers.
Look at January 2025 California wildfires where an LA Water official makes $750K per year, but many LA fire hydrants were dry.
If there was a problem upstream, (ironic pun) she should have been whistle-blowing.
True or False: California officials just killed enough people to be considered mass murderers.
And... have made hundreds or thousands of their citizens poor and homeless.
nebraska one-room school house
local school districts
This article first appeared on one of my websites in March of 2023.
Re-reading it now, it looks very DOGE-ey. Have a look.
The single biggest consumer of our property tax dollars are local school districts.
The School Auditor would be elected by the voters and could not be removed by any school administrator or by any vote of the school board. The Auditor's job is to be the eyes and ears of the parents, voters and taxpayers when school administrators try to operate off-the-radar.
Too many school board members are sold out to school administrators and have become minions to the education system that sees children as their future social warriors and sex toys.
The auditor would have the right and responsibility to:
* have access to any piece of paper and email generated within the school.
* monitor classes for curriculum and behavior, solely at the will of the Auditor.
* privately survey students if they are being told to keep anything secret from their parents.
* create a private means of contact (email) between the auditor and the students and
Roughly 50% of property taxes go to schools.
And... when someone gets a traffic ticket, the fines often go to the local school district.
And... some local School Superintendents draw a higher salary than their State's Governor.
How is that?
Again, schools are funded through property taxes. The County government is responsible for collecting taxes to fund local school districts. School boards submit budgets to county governments, and virtually without opposition, the county government sets property tax rates to accommodate school budgets. I've worked for a county government, so I've seen the process in action.
Here is my idea to make schools more parent/taxpayer-responsive;
another elected official added to our local school systems - an elected School Auditor.
The School Auditor would be elected by the voters and could not be removed by any school administrator or by any vote of the school board. The Auditor's job is to be the eyes and ears of the parents, voters and taxpayers when school administrators try to operate off-the-radar.
Too many school board members are sold out to school administrators and have become minions to the education system that sees children as their future social warriors and sex toys.
The auditor would have the right and responsibility to:
* have access to any piece of paper and email generated within the school.
* monitor classes for curriculum and behavior, solely at the will of the Auditor.
* privately survey students if they are being told to keep anything secret from their parents.
* create a private means of contact (email) between the auditor and the students and
parents, monitored by local police.
* have a reserved, secure website, independent from any school website,
* have a reserved, secure website, independent from any school website,
or school administration oversight, to publish findings for public review.
* attend any meeting, including meetings that concerns any student or teacher or vendor,
* attend any meeting, including meetings that concerns any student or teacher or vendor,
to assure policies are being adhered to.
* check school dumpsters to see how much good stuff is being discarded.
* check school dumpsters to see how much good stuff is being discarded.
* review all financial documents to look for waste, fraud or extravagance,
and make public recommendations at County budget hearings, to what the school budget
should be, versus what is being requested by school administration.
* create a public file of all salaries in that school district, plus the $$$ value of benefits'.
(There are local superintendents with higher salaries that their State's Governor. )
(There are local superintendents with higher salaries that their State's Governor. )
* have a reserved speaking time at every meeting, with a legally-mandated time allotment.
* report to the public, a sampling of books in the library and the classroom that locals
* report to the public, a sampling of books in the library and the classroom that locals
might find offensive.
* have the right to call police about a safety or security issue without notifying
* have the right to call police about a safety or security issue without notifying
school administration first.
Yes, this is an adversarial position, based on the understanding that many educators feel they are more qualified to guide children than the parents are. And many feel their budgets should equal many upscale businesses.
Sadly, in some cases, these educators are correct.
Still, we must operate under the principle that the collective wisdom of earnest parents will better guide their children than teachers (some of them yet childless, many of them pro-abortion, some are child molesters) with ulterior motives, who want to use other people's children for sexual pleasure or to spread ideologies contrary to the US Constitution.
PS, the School Auditor would also have the legal right to visit their city's public library and report to the public what types of books and activities are available to students in the school district where they are elected. I suspect that some school and public libraries work together to use public libraries as a cache of material the schools can't distribute at school.
Yes, this is an adversarial position, based on the understanding that many educators feel they are more qualified to guide children than the parents are. And many feel their budgets should equal many upscale businesses.
Sadly, in some cases, these educators are correct.
Still, we must operate under the principle that the collective wisdom of earnest parents will better guide their children than teachers (some of them yet childless, many of them pro-abortion, some are child molesters) with ulterior motives, who want to use other people's children for sexual pleasure or to spread ideologies contrary to the US Constitution.
PS, the School Auditor would also have the legal right to visit their city's public library and report to the public what types of books and activities are available to students in the school district where they are elected. I suspect that some school and public libraries work together to use public libraries as a cache of material the schools can't distribute at school.
TAXPAYERS
insurance
Three points:
1) I was once a certified producer (licensed to sell insurance.) One day the boss bragged that the company took in twice (2X !) the amount they paid out on auto insurance claims.
This same company refused to insure families with teen drivers. I had a teen driver and could not get auto insurance through my own employer.
2) My 2024 home insurance was $1,520.00
My 2025 home insurance was $2320.00 Same house, same coverage.
3) I'm not surprised at CEO health insurance assassinations.
Insurance companies advertise quality healthcare. But when profit is more important than
quality healthcare, pro-choice insurance customers become frustrated and are tempted
to treat healthcare CEOs like unborn babies - that are barriers to their personal happiness.
Let me share something here. In mid-year, my wife's med-insurance provider stated that we could no longer use a certain provider because they were renegotiating payment schedules.
When someone agrees to a policy with a certain network, that arrangement should hold throughout the entire contracted coverage period. Switching mid-stream is dirty pool.
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As a pro-lifer, I find it interesting when different factions of pro-choice people clash.
Each of these groups intend to kill humans continually, for the sake of $$$ and independence.
So, when these sectors clash, the conflict has to be spectacular.
TAXPAYERS
add-on fees
When I call to get a price for a motel room, the clerk tells me the cost of the room.
Then I specifically ask for 'the total cost' of the room for my stay.
Then I get the accurate cost that I asked for in the first place.
My internet/phone bill is seldom what I was promised and often creeps up without notice.
"Taxes and fees on the typical American wireless consumer increased significantly this year from 24.5 percent of a typical monthly bill in 2023 to 26.8 percent in 2024." *
Why are we paying luxury tax rates on a service that has become a necessity,
given that land lines are being abandoned, and public schools went online during COVID?
(February 18, 2025, many schools closed due to severe cold, which mandated remote learning. How can a required tool [the internet] be taxed as a luxury?)
And check cashing services prey on the poor and destroy many.
*taxfoundation.org/data/all/state/wireless-taxes-cell-phone-tax-rates-by-state-2024/
TAXPAYERS
penalties
It used to be that penalties were meant to prod lax people into paying properly and on time.
But now I suspect that big companies especially hire people to exploit this revenue stream,
to make it an income source all its own.
You don't have the patience to read all the ways the average American can be penalized.
It makes me want to withdraw to the hills and live off-grid.
meme. My only vehicle is a pickup truck...
What will these HOA Tyrants do when they die and learn that
they are not good enough for heaven?
The Golden Rule is a severe qualification that HOA tyrants fail.
HOAs
While I don't belong to an HOA, the internet memes tell me that some HOAs are like little dictatorships. The Eight Amendment to the US Constitution says:
"Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted."
HOAs should be subject to the Eighth Amendment, eh?
Here is an article that describes how rich people try to claim nice public property as their own:
msn.com/en-us/news/us/city-humbled-by-judge-after-trying-to-ban-visitors-from-using-lake/ar-AA1AiWFf?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=HCTS&cvid=2306e6baf88c48fc9a8078f28bae60ce&ei=9