jj@rabbit.UUCP (10/31/83)
There was a story in one of the SF magazines (or F&SF, maybe) a few mohths back that described a new system of income taxes. While the taxes weren't changed in amount, they were changed so that every citizen could specify what amount, or percentage, of his taxes went to what government body, for what effect. While the ending in the story was (at best) described as Pollyanna-ish, I won't mention it here, what does the net community think of the idea? It's clear that TRC (and others) have proposed something like this, but only attached to space research/flight. What about the same idea for everything? That way, liberals could assuage their guilt, conservatives could buy guns, and us sensible people could fund our way into space, where we won't get blown up with the rest of them. Serious comments to the net. I don't particularly propose this system, but I don't think it's been discussed. Those who wish to flame and ridicule please do so in net.flame, where such things are appropriate. -- o O from the pyrolagnic keyboard of ~ rabbit!jj -v-v- \^_^/
dave@utcsrgv.UUCP (Dave Sherman) (11/03/83)
We have that in a very small way for property taxes in Ontario.
If (and only if) you are Catholic, you have the option of specifying
that the educational portion of your property taxes go to support
the Catholic school system instead of the public system. The Catholic
schools (known as "separate schools") are funded primarily by this mechanism,
and do not charge fees. All other private schools (religious and
otherwise) receive no government support.
I'm not sure I agree with the idea. How many people can make intelligent
decisions about where their money should go? What happens if when you
tally it all up there's no money for garbage collection? Bow to the
implicit wishes of the people?
I think the system as implemented here for schools is OK but should
be extended to support other school systems as well (students at
Jewish schools for example, are giving the public school system a
break by not using their resources, yet they [their parents] have to
pay large sums for the privilege.
Dave Sherman
Toronto
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{allegra,cornell,decvax,ihnp4,linus,utzoo}!utcsrgv!davelaura@utcsstat.UUCP (Laura Creighton) (11/05/83)
The "Catholic school" thing is a TORONTO, not an ONTARIO wide thing as far as I know. Also, you can support the Catholic School even if you are not a Catholic. You have to rant and rave every year, and gripe that this is discrimination and that you will get the Ontario Human Rights Commission in on it to look for discrimination on the basis of Religion, but it works. I know. I refuse to give the census folks any information about my religion, and I also send my money to the Catholic School Board. I have to scream every year, but it works... Laura Creighton utzoo!utcsstat!laura
eder@ssc-vax.UUCP (Dani Eder) (11/08/83)
8 November 1983
Being Election Day in the US it is an appropriate time to comment
on tax check-offs. We have an equivalent system at the local level
where you vote to approve or disapprove bond issues and school levys.
At least in Washington State, there have been numerous instances where
schools submitted too high a levy request (which authorizes them to tax
property owners to support the schools), it failed, they lowered their
request, and it passed.
This may be a crude system, but it does allow the people who are
being asked to pay the taxes to express their opinions on the worth of
the activity being supported.
For a voluntary checkoff system, the issue has been raised 'what
happens if not enough money is voted for garbage collection', which
I take to be a case of the larger question 'what if not enough is
allocated to an 'essential' service'. Again, using a local example,
we have private garbage collection where I live now. We pay by the
can, more or less. If you look really hard, there are many 'essential
services' that could be performed privately. In the case of utilities
such as roads, gas taxes or tolls are appropriate ways to pay for them
because the users are the ones who pay for them.
Dani Eder
Boeing Aerospace