The whole point of free speech is not to make ideas exempt from criticism but to expose them to it.

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Excuuuse Me! We're Broke!

The country is broke. The state is broke. The county is broke. The city is broke. The school district is broke.

This from the Rapid City Journal: County Space Crunch Gets Tighter.
And: Rapid City teachers want salary increase; union rejects latest offer from district.

WE'RE BROKE!

As Rapid City citizens struggle with a difficult economy we are making the money we have go farther. We have no more to give. And so it is time the public officials recognize that and make adjustments accordingly.

11 comments:

Thad Wasson said...

The district led by example when it gave Mr. Patridge $7500 to come up with a spreadsheet of where the money comes from and leads to. This is work of a budget director who is already on the district payroll. Nothing is treated with as much disrespect than public money.

Bill Fleming said...

Better stick on another penny sales tax, Mike.

Soak up a few more easy bucks from the touristas.

Problem is, pretty soon the sales tax on your Whopper will be more than the Whopper and you won't be able to even think about a side of fries.

What to do... what to do?

Hmmm... state income tax anyone?

Seriously though, how much of what gets done at the "office" could just as well be done at home or online from some other location given proper infrastructure? Does everybody REALLY have to be in the same building these days? I bet at least half of the people don't.

Bill Fleming said...

We need to build buildings, by golly.

Because that's what we're best at.
Building buildings. Just look at
all the big buildings we've built.

And all of the land we have left
on which to build new buildings!

Never mind that half
of the buildings we built
are abandoned.

We'll build a new building
where we can belabor
how best to blow big bucks
bringing down buildings
we built but abandoned.

So we can keep building
more buildings.

Thad Wasson said...

Not bad Bill, we have a big SCI building. We have a big mall. We even have a big soccer field. Plenty of space for a third high school!

Michael Sanborn said...

A state income tax is not the answer. My point is that taxpayers are broke too. Finding reasons to spend more money in an economy that has no money is folly.

No state income tax. No increases in property tax. No increases in sales tax. The answer is to tighten government's belt.

County government operates pretty lean for the most part. But, as a taxpayer, I'm weary of the Sheriff and the commission coming up with more and more reasons to build more buildings, when we have no money to pay for them. Taxpayers in this state are strapped.

Find waste and other stuff we can get along without and cut it. Drive our squad cars longer. Repair, rather than replace machinery scheduled for replacement.

Bill Fleming said...

How about "save on chalk and shoe leather by telling those women in uniform downtown to quit drawing on my tires every two hours."

Michael Sanborn said...

No kidding, Bill! It costs a lot more to administer the parking ticket program that it makes.

When I officed downtown it was an impossible situation when clients came to the office to do business for OMG more than 2 hours.

It was one of the primary reasons I left.

Taunia Adams said...

Yeah, I remember working downtown RC, meter central. That's revenue to the city, but where does it go specifically, to do what?

Anonymous said...

Not so sure that the state income tax is a dumb idea. North Dakota is running a $1 billion surplus - and they are not taxed any more than are South Dakotans, instead the folks who can afford to pay, do.

Bill Fleming said...

Anonymous. No, it's not a dumb idea at all. In fact, it's a good idea. Problem is you just have to be crazy like me or Anonymous like you to even bring it up in the context of South Dakota Politics.

In fact, I'm going outside right now to see if somebody has let the air out of my tires. (wink)

Taunia Adams said...

My property in Missouri is worth/valued at more than double what it was in South Dakota (similar homes in square footage, age, other relevant factors, etc.) but I pay approximately one fourth the taxes in MO as I did in SD. (Not the best comparison as far as tax bases I know.)

However, I am now paying state income tax and since my husband is self employed, we just paid our quarterly taxes on September 15, 2009. The State of Missouri is much further ahead with our income tax than an exaggerated property tax.