Taxes

[WebLady]

Again, lets remember to respect each other even if we don't agree ....

Do you see your tax dollars at work in your area? This was the main poll question and I said sometimes. I see signs about "Your tax dollars at work" when they build a new school or something.

Do you think the government puts our tax dollars to good use? I wonder sometimes ... I see bad roads and little or no safe public parks in the area. Plus you still hear teachers, police and other public servants complain about their paycheck. So I just wonder where all the money goes.

Do you think taxes should be raised to better support the community? Personally I think they get enough of my money and I don't see a whole lot from it.

[Kacie_bride]

Do you see your tax dollars at work in your area?

Do you think the government puts our tx dollars to good use?

Do you think taxes should be raised to better support the community?


1. Sometimes, but locally we just don't have a lot of money coming in. We are not a wealthy area by any means.

2. Sometimes they do. There are some things that they spend money on that I don't like.

3. yes

[CindySue]

Do you see your tax dollars at work in your area? This was the main poll question and I said sometimes. I see signs about "Your tax dollars at work" when they build a new school or something.

Do you think the government puts our tax dollars to good use? I wonder sometimes ... I see bad roads and little or no safe public parks in the area. Plus you still hear teachers, police and other public servants complain about their paycheck. So I just wonder where all the money goes.

Do you think taxes should be raised to better support the community? Personally I think they get enough of my money and I don't see a whole lot from it.

1. I saw more in the town I used to live in than I do in the town Im in now.

2. Around here? No. I think the city officials put it in their pocket. Well now to be fair, this is a football oriented town and they do get a brand spanking new football field every 3 or 4 years or so even though there was absolutely nothing wrong with the one before. They did recently (about 4 years ago) build new or remodel all the schools.
All of the streets suck, all of the orignal buildings in the center of town are falling down. Mechants are buying land on the outskirts of town and building new shops.

3. Why? Im sure their paychecks are big enough as it is.

[ladymelissa]

Do you see your tax dollars at work in your area? For the most part it's pretty good here, we have good parks, lots of tennis courts, the streets are kept up and the schools are good.

Do you think the government puts our tax dollars to good use? For the most part. One of the biggest WTF moments I had here (this is a relatively small community) was for months as was reported in the paper, city council was complaining that there was going to have to be cuts in the budget and what not b/c there wasn't enough money. Then a privately owned building burned down in the downtown area and the owners were not repairing it quickly.

So instead of the city just issuing warnings and fines, they decided to buy the remnants of the building, level it and install a small green space, in the middle of the business district! It's useless and now they have to maintain it! They should have made money off the fines and let the owner take care of it and be responsible if someone was hurt by it or they could have at least paved it and use it for parking as there is limited parking in the area and even that would be less maintenance than a lawn or flowers.

Do you think taxes should be raised to better support the community? From time to time it is necessary to raise taxes as operating costs increase, but at least here, if they opted to buy and create a park in one of the least logical locations for it, I think they are doing just fine. Our schools could use a little brushing up, we were ranked in the "good" category by the state (it's the second level behind excellent). I am not sure if money is the answer or just better programs or teachers.

Federal taxes are yet another story. I can't believe we national debt.

[SoontobeMrsClark07]

1. They just built a new school not too far from me and also refurbished a very old building (I want to say from the turn of the century) for activities done through parks and rec. In 2000 they completed the "rebuilding and addition of the high school I attended, my parents attended, and my 80 year old nextdoor neighbor attended. We also have a wonderful civil war museum as well as lovely buildings that bring revenue into the city.

2. While I still feel that teachers, policemen, fire and rescue personel are underpaid, I have to say as a whole we dont have any problems other than that. Our parks are beautiful and always being updated and are in safe areas and they have completely revamped the parking system in our old town district making shopping and dining so much easier. Our roads are never bad, plowing is done in a timely manner and there arent any bad roads that I can think of. The area within the city limits is small, making it easier to maintain. We also have had great mayors. Both of the mayors that we have had since I was little have been family friends and people who have lived here and seen problems and potential problems and they have really worked to fix them.

3. We have a food tax in the city in order to keep our taxes low. The beauty of that is, I can go drive 2 minutes down the road and eat in the county and not have a food tax (just the normal 5% VA sales tax). My uncle lives in the county (I live in the city) and his taxes are a lot more than ours are. Its insane. I think they will increase our taxes if they need to, but I know it probably wont happen unless its absolutely necessary. Our city officials arent that wealthy (most of them are family friends) and would hate to raise taxes cause they would have to pay them as well.