[Peace-discuss] local issues

[Barbara kessel]

On school funding, I recently found out (from Jakobson) that we have a "flat
income tax" written in to the Illinois state constitution, so that we cannot
institute a graduated income tax for the state of Illinois. I am for an
amendment to the Illinois Constitution (not nearly so hard nor as expensive
as having a Con-Con) to allow graduated income tax because property taxes
have gone about as far as they can go and it is dirty shame to have to fund
schools through sales taxes which are the most regressive tax. We do need to
equalize school funding at the state and the federal levels.      Given that
the situation is desperate and nothing like the above is in sight, I have to
agree with Neil and all my friends who are teachers in the public schools
and vote, with great sadness, for the sales tax. We are losing generations
of people in our crumbling society. Like the poverty referendum, it won't do
much in the real world, but it is all we can get at this moment in history -
and we may not even get either or these things.
      Kudos to those 8 people who spoke so well at the Champaign City
Council for the poverty referendum and forced the Council members to declare
themselves(5 for and 2 against, 2 absent). Barbara

On Wed, Oct 22, 2008 at 4:33 PM, C. G. Estabrook <galliher at uiuc.edu> wrote:

> Ideas are not responsible for the people who believe in them.
>
> Property taxes are as close as we come to wealth taxes (and we should come
> closer).
>
> Disparities in school funding need to be equalized at the state (or
> federal) level, not by a regressive local tax.  --CGE
>
>
>
> Neil Parthun wrote:
>
>> Bruno Behrend, a far right radio show host whose show I was on a few years
>> ago, is for the Con Con.  So, I'm against it.
>>
>> And while sales taxes are regressive, it is also fundamentally unfair to
>> put most of a school's funding on property taxes.  Poorer districts have
>> significant difficulty in getting funding for their buildings due to such
>> economic setups.  Illinois is a state that has some of the most fundamental
>> disparities in school funding between districts.
>> Its not the act of seeing with our own eyes alone; its correctly
>> comprehending what we see,
>>                         Neil
>>
>>  We absolutely have to refuse to attribute any kind of permanency to that
>> which is simply because it is.
>> [angela v. davis, 1944-]
>>
>> Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some
>> blunders and absurdities have crept in; forget them as soon as you can.
>> Tomorrow is a new day. You shall begin it serenely and with too high a
>> spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.
>> [ralph waldo emerson, 1803-1882]
>>
>
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