Another way to manipulate the vote

[Klast Brell]

"http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=sub ... ons&sc=rss
voters are more likely to approve a sales tax increase when voting in a school."
I would love to see a statistical breakdown of polling places relocated over the next few years and party affiliations of the people who move them. Republicans will try to move all the polls to churches and democrats will try to move all the polls to schools.

[Ariannda Kusanagi]

Now I didn't read the article, but I fail to see how people are more likely to vote FOR a sale tax increase when voting in a school versus voting anywhere else. I can perhaps see being swayed in some religious voe when voting in a church, or voting to increase school funding when voting in a school but other then that...

Personally my polling place is at the Civic Center, so whats that going to sway the vote on, public funding ?

[Klast Brell]

Now I didn't read the article, but I fail to see how people are more likely to vote FOR a sale tax increase when voting in a school versus voting anywhere else.

When in a school you are surrounded by the evidence for the need to increase funding and can more easily envision it's benefits.

[Ariannda Kusanagi]

We had a sales tax increase in Md from 5% to 6%... I have yet to hear any of the local cops note they got a raise, and I have yet to see anything be done in any of the local schools =/

[Fallakin Kuvari]

6%?! Thats it?

[Klast Brell]

Probably went to make up for the property tax cuts you got over the last 10 years.

[Kulaf]

We had a sales tax increase in Md from 5% to 6%... I have yet to hear any of the local cops note they got a raise, and I have yet to see anything be done in any of the local schools =/

Just a question here......what would paying police more money do? Most of the time the increased inflow of money is used to hire more police.....not give out raises.

[Beestyall]

Alas Ari, you read not the reason for the increase. The state took in an asston less revenue this year and the only way to stay quasi-solvent is to increase the sales tax in 08, the income tax in 09. In addition to the sales tax increase, there's a computer repair tax (and only computer repair service tax) in this state.

Secondary education has a 5 year (maybe longer) tuition freeze, which is to say the state picks up the max 4% increase per year allowed to secondary institutions. As a grad student that's seen my tuition raise 6% and 7% (and an estimated 9.5% next year, early numbers) I'd like to have the sweet deal the undergrad has.

Baldimore did get more money for cops, but it was to put more worthless babes in blue on the street, not stopping the public urination, running red lights or stealing. However both crack houses across MLK now have a constant police presence and the extortionist supreme Mayor Dixon now can safely wear the fur coat she got giving services to a land developer w/o fear of having a peta attack or *gasp* it taken from her.

[Ddrak]

there's a computer repair tax (and only computer repair service tax) in this state.

What the fuck?

Dd

[Riggen]

Probably went to make up for the property tax cuts you got over the last 10 years.

ORLY?

My property tax has gone up approximately 20% over the past few years. My property's value, on the other hand, has remained largely static. I would very much like to see those tax cuts you speak of reach reality.

[Ariannda Kusanagi]

Sorry I dropped the ball on replying here.

Frankly I think the police could use major wage increases. MY brother in law just left NY where my sister was a nurse (pulling down a huge salary) and he was a cop (pulling down around 30k) and they couldn't afford to live there anymore, so they moved back home and in with my parents. Around here and mind you I don't live in Baltimore, I live on the Eastern Shore where the largest police presence is felt during the summer time when traffic and tourism increase 10 fold, but around here the police working wage is around 32k a year. The job I recently accepted an offer for is an office job at 25k a year and required only my high school diploma for education. Cops have to have a BA last I heard. Everyone always asks me why I didn't persue a career as a firefighter, bad knees aside the pay is terrible as are the shifts. 24 hours on means I have to have full time, 24 hours a DAY daycare and good luck with that, also good luck doing it on that kind of salary.

Maybe putting more money in to the local police forces isn't the answer but it would be a small step in the right direction. If we're not supposed to have any children left behind (thanks GW) then where's all the money that's supposed to go into public education and why am I being asked to supply the kids classrooms so the money doesn't have to come from the teachers pockets ? why isn't there enough money to by dry erase markers for the damn classrooms, not to mention paper (bit of a staple isn't it ?) ?

Dixon is a whore, no need to even mention her name, however raising the tax is fine, I support raising the tax and paying 6 cents instead of 5 if i can see that the money is being put into good use, and the state would have seen increased revenue the same as always had it not been for gas prices and people not wanting to drive to the beach (although personally I've seen no shortage of people around here paying extra money to spend weeks or months at the beach). I simply don't understand where all the money is going, aside from Dixon's fur coat =p

Klast, it's my objective opinion that by paying current officers more money it gives them more of an incentive to stay on the force, making the current police force a more experienced collective unit, instead of tossing out new rookies every 6 months who quit in 2 years only to have to start over again. Give people a reason to stay and they will, and receiving kickbacks for being a guy in blue isn't a valid enough reason.

[Kulaf]

I would not have a problem paying police more......if they were salaried rather than hourly. The problem is overtime. If your bro in law was only pulling down 30k as a cop something is wrong there. Almost every cop I ever talked to complained about their pay but when I asked them how much they make in OT the subject quickly changed. I would say most cops pull down 2/3rds of their base pay in OT each year.

[Ariannda Kusanagi]

Thats not exactly fair Kulaf. I got my CNA license and while I was still in the class I was turned down for income based housing because I was told, word for word "Every CNA *I* know makes more then our max limitations (which were 33k a year)". How could I possibly be disqualified on the fact that this woman knew people who worked overtime ? I don't know but there was no one I could petition the situation to because it was privately subsidized not state funded. The other problem was that I was denied the day before I was scheduled to move in, talk about a pain.... Also i was scheduled 32 hours a week, no more, no less, not enough to even be considered full time so they certainly didn't have to worry about paying me overtime. I was also promised the FT job once it became available but instead they hired 2 more people part time.

I'm not sure what he made in overtime, I know my sister got herself into a huge amount of financial trouble because they didn't take taxes from her check, and she didn't pay any, so she ended up owing around 17k in taxes. When they moved form SC to NY she said she'd need to make at least 55 an hour and wouldn't settle for less, but all the same they lived there for almost 2 years and couldn't afford it, so back home they came.

I think salaried positions are a more acceptable way to work (from a personal stand point as far as managers in any capacity are concerned) If you don't have the staff to work and you need to do it instead then it's your own responsibility and failure. however if the pay were increased enough to keep people on the forces then salaried would be fine, because there wouldn't be 60 hour work weeks... in theory

[Klast Brell]

Hey I support raising the pay of police. I also support raising the pay of the men and women serving in our armed forces. But I guess that makes me a tax and spend liberal.

[Kulaf]

Pay needs to be sufficient to provide a living. I don't think pay should ever be a motivator to join the military or the police force.....and currently I don't belive it is.

[Beestyall]

there's a computer repair service tax (and only computer repair service tax) in this state.

What the fuck?

Dd

Sorry, this is what I get for writing between doing school work.

If you own a computer service company you have to pay sales tax on the work done (as opposed to every other service industry that doesn't charge for labor in Maryland). I've gotten conflicting reports on why it's in there, but apparently they figured they could get a lot of money and screw the mom and pop shops at the same time. Someone is probably thrilled by thing, but it beats me as to who.

[Ddrak]

So I guess there's a lot of hobbyist electronics shops that just happen to know about computers?

Dd

[Beestyall]

Or the computer shop workers of america has a crappier lobby then the AFL-CIO.