# Why vote for school taxes? My kids are out. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [July 10, 2004, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-vote-for-school-taxes-my-kids-are-out/254494 "2004-07-10T22:39:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2004, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-vote-for-school-taxes-my-kids-are-out/254494/61 "2004-07-14T00:01:17Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > Ah, you misunderstand - which comes from the fact that you live in civilization. > > In California reassessments are triggered only by a new owner or a major rennovation. The taxes the previous owners of the house we bought were paying were based on the valuation of the house when Prop 13 passed. It jumped about threefold when we bought it. In seven years the market prices has nearly doubled 🙂 but the assessed valuation has not budged. > > This is one of the reasons for our high house prices. If your four kids moved out of your five bedroom house, you can’t afford to buy anything smaller - the increased taxes will kill you. Oh crap. What was that window doing open, and why did I click submit? :wally on me. ---
**Author:** ![Yeticus\_Rex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/a698b9/32.png) [@Yeticus\_Rex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yeticus_Rex)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2004, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-vote-for-school-taxes-my-kids-are-out/254494/62 "2004-07-14T18:37:57Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > In California reassessments are triggered only by a new owner or a major rennovation. Partially right…To my surprise, I just got reassessed for REFINANCING my mortgage…practically doubling the value of my house and my tax liability. It would have been better to pay my mortgage of instead… :smack: I will never make that mistake again. ---
**Author:** ![Pyrrhonist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/919ad9/32.png) [@Pyrrhonist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pyrrhonist)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2004, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-vote-for-school-taxes-my-kids-are-out/254494/63 "2004-07-15T21:38:19Z")
Hello, my name is **Pyrrhonist** , and I’m a _Cash Cow_. My wife and I earn decent to good salaries, giving us a healthy income, and we don’t have children. We pay and pay and pay to all the Government services that we’ll, in all likelihood, never need. Am I bitter about it? Well, honesty, yes, just a little. But the tears are mostly of the crocodile variety, it is all part of the game. I know that I’ll always have to pay much more into taxes than I’ll get out of the Government. I’m a bulwark of the underlining foundation; if there were no one like me, those paying more into the system then they got out, I doubt the system could survive. Okay, I have to pay school taxes when I don’t have children. So be it. You got my money. But I’m not about to get up and jig joyously over thought that my tax dollars spent on public education may help put the dumb neighborhood kid through school to be a doctor who’ll watch over me when I’m a geezer. The Government already gets some my money, gets a lot of money in fact. Don’t accuse me of not paying a healthy share of the public expenses. You’re not going to see a happy face if you come to me with an Oliver Twist expression and say, “Please, Sir, can have some more?” So if I’m ever presented with the option of paying more, don’t be so uppity if I say no. An increase in taxes to pay for better schools, or anything else for that matter, better make a good deal of sense before I’ll agree to pay more into that fund. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2004, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-vote-for-school-taxes-my-kids-are-out/254494/64 "2004-07-15T22:02:16Z")
> [@Yeticus Rex](#): > > Partially right…To my surprise, I just got reassessed for REFINANCING my mortgage…practically doubling the value of my house and my tax liability. It would have been better to pay my mortgage of instead… :smack: > > I will never make that mistake again. Really? We refinanced and didn’t get hit with anything. You’d think it would be big news, considering the number of people who have refinanced in the past few years. Do you know if there is some kind of threshold or something? ---
**Author:** ![Yeticus\_Rex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/a698b9/32.png) [@Yeticus\_Rex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yeticus_Rex)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2004, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-vote-for-school-taxes-my-kids-are-out/254494/65 "2004-07-16T01:56:52Z")
I went on the [San Bernardino County Assessor](http://www.sbcounty.gov/assessor/sbca2/GeneralInformation/propasmt.htm) website and read about how prop 13 and prop 8 are applied and I’m still baffled how they jacked up the values 90k last year and 113k this year. I’m smell something rotten and will visit my assessor soon. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2004, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-vote-for-school-taxes-my-kids-are-out/254494/66 "2004-07-16T02:52:27Z")
I live in a village in Ohio. My school district was in the center of a huge storm that caused great controversy in the state over school funding. Various bills were passed. The supreme court kept saying everything was unconstitutional. Fun for all. The claim was that my poor, Appalachian school district didn’t have the money to spend on their students. Per capita spending was low, you see, because funding came from property taxes. Other districts have more money! We’re poor! They’re rich! And they fussed. And they fought. And they fussed some more. And while they were fussing, they built a mammoth new high school next to the old one. We’re poor! They’re rich! Except we’re rich enough to build brand new buildings! But we’re poor! Raise taxes! Raise taxes! RAISE TAAAAAXES! I just can’t muster any sympathy. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-vote-for-school-taxes-my-kids-are-out/254494.md?page=3)