It’s 2 a.m. Do you know where your tax dollars are?
March 11, 2009
I’ve blogged from the House Floor before…. and, by now, you already know about live updates from “the Twitter Caucus” on SCTWEETS.COM .
As I type tonight this post it is 2:05 a.m. Wednesday morning and we are still on the House floor debating our budget. I hope we’ll be finished within the hour.
As someone who would rather not have spent this $350 million from the federal government, here are some amendments that passed yesterday and today that several of us feel will put some safeguards in place for our taxpayers. If we’re gonna spend the money, at least we’ve tried to protect the taxpayers.
* All stimulus money spent by the State Department of Education must be put on their website homepage to show the programs that were funded.
* No stimulus money may be spent on administrative purposes for the State Department of Education (must go to our schools).
* We have protections in place so that schools using stimulus money cannot restrict religious activities.
* Removed a $500,000 earmark in Parks, Recreation, and Tourism.
* Approved a Consolidation of State Agencies Study Committee
* All stimulus money spent by state agencies must be put online.
* Removed the Competitive Grants language
* All state agencies must list the total of their fees and fines on their agency website.
I appreciate all the feedback and advice shared with me leading up to this difficult week. I plan to write more later and, of course, share the final vote.
Comments
3 Responses to “It’s 2 a.m. Do you know where your tax dollars are?”
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What ever happened to the state surplus?
I live on the lake where others are building huge houses, buying lots at inflated prices and causing my old house to keep going up in value. Which is great if I want to sell but I would like to live here for the remainder of my life but my taxes are taking all of my nest egg to give to our government so I don’t know how long I will be able to hold on to my house. Where is the equity that lets people who buy these big houses get money to let them keep their mansions but someone like me who has no mortgage, no income other that social security will most likely have to leave their home they have been in for some 48 years because our government doesn’t know how to spend our taxes wisely. They had a story of a house near me that sold for $600,000 dollars. A contractor bought it. He has had it on the market ever since and it has not sold yet. He is now renting it. Wanting to let you see the side of us elderly, retired folk on social security. Not too bright, is it?
Mrs. Davis, what you write about is exactly why we needed the Property Tax Relief Act passed a few years back. It’s also why we placed “caps” on local governments so that they can’t raise your value more than 15% in 5 years.
My grandparents built a concrete-block house on Lake Murray (past what is now Timberlake) but the appreciation/taxes helped lead them to have to sell years (20 or so). Gosh knows what that place would be “worth” to local governments taxes.
Thanks for reading and commenting on Nathansnews!
Nathan