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$5.6 Billion School Bond proposed


avery

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I like talking about development as much as the next person, but I thought I would start this topic to add some variety to the forum. With Wake County exploding in growth, the county has severly underestimated its impact on the local school system. Realizing the shortfall, Wake School Board is proposing a bond that would jack property taxes up 9 cents per $100. Do you think this is a fair proposal? Personally, I think that it will get approved and I will probably vote for the approval at the next election, but I wonder if Wake's pool of money is growing proportionally to its growth.

It seems the more people and businesses that move in, the more the tax base...hence more money. Has Wake county hit a wall where the taxe rate needs to increase to meet the obligations of the people? I guess we need a solution to our water woes, traffic, utilities, etc. as our county grows, but is this the only option? It may be. I was wondering what some other people's thoughts were on this one and do you think the tax rate will continue to grow every year as Wake grows?

http://www.newsobserver.com/102/story/374819.html

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It would be easy to get on a rant about having to pay taxes, but Wake County schools are very good, and the attempt to manage growth by paying an additional $10 a month in taxes (or so) is fairly reasonable. I am wary of municipal indebtedness as future growing tax revenues have to pay off the debt for many years. In line with normal inflation, we will all pay more in property taxes via either revaluation or adjustment of rates, I would just have preferred that new schools could be funded through a previously conceived capital improvement fund instead of bonds.

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It would be easy to get on a rant about having to pay taxes, but Wake County schools are very good, and the attempt to manage growth by paying an additional $10 a month in taxes (or so) is fairly reasonable. I am wary of municipal indebtedness as future growing tax revenues have to pay off the debt for many years. In line with normal inflation, we will all pay more in property taxes via either revaluation or adjustment of rates, I would just have preferred that new schools could be funded through a previously conceived capital improvement fund instead of bonds.

Considering inflation grows at 3% annually, how much above and beyond that do you think we can expect over the next 20 years? There comes a point where too high of taxes can detract from the qualities of life that it provides with regards to growth. I would hate to see Wake cost of living to increase too much as this can encourage sprawl to lower taxed counties or to completely different regions.

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I can't believe Wake county only evaluates property every 8-10 years. Here in Northern VA the counties reassess every single year. Property taxes on my town house have gone up 150% in 5 years. The only difference here is that the counties have lowered their tax rates the last few years, but they still are raking in tons more money because houses have been appreciating 25-30% for 4 years in a row. So they look good by lowering the rate, but they only lower the rate 5% and they're making 25% more on taxes then they did the year before. Smoke & mirrors.

Does anyone know when the next reassessment in Wake is? I'll be moving there in late spring and that kind of info might be helpful.

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I can't believe Wake county only evaluates property every 8-10 years. Here in Northern VA the counties reassess every single year.

I too find that amazing. As someone who works in real estate I call across the country to various tax assessors offices. Most small or rural areas are the ones that come to mind that only assess their property infrequently. Wake is losing out on their tax dollars by not assessing every year especially now that the area is booming and most properties will continually appreciate.

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I too find that amazing. As someone who works in real estate I call across the country to various tax assessors offices. Most small or rural areas are the ones that come to mind that only assess their property infrequently. Wake is losing out on their tax dollars by not assessing every year especially now that the area is booming and most properties will continually appreciate.

The rural places in VA (Southern, Southwest VA) assess every 3-4 years and that's a little more understandable. Wake county values have not gone up anywhere near the values in Northern VA, but 8-10 years does sound a little strange. Wake seems like they're losing out on a lot of money.

I couldn't imagine what my new tax bill would look like if my county reassessed every 10 years and this year was one of them. It would be 3 times higher!

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I think public schools donn't spend the money right though. The tax money is mostly spent on the sports teams of the school so they can have the best equpiment rather then the best stuff to get kids a learnin.

This is what makes me PO! My schools (the 12 I went to) were all like this. They had the best dang teams but the schools still used computers from '95 era and still used books from 1950! I think they should allocate money better. Then school taxes would'nt be so bad.

I don't agree however having to pay for another kids education when, I myself don't even want kids. I think there should be a system setup to not take so much from married/unmarried couples without kids. but take more from familes with kids that do go to school. it would be more fair to people without kids who have to give money to a school they don't have a kid who goes there.

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I think public schools donn't spend the money right though. The tax money is mostly spent on the sports teams of the school so they can have the best equpiment rather then the best stuff to get kids a learnin.

This is what makes me PO! My schools (the 12 I went to) were all like this. They had the best dang teams but the schools still used computers from '95 era and still used books from 1950! I think they should allocate money better. Then school taxes would'nt be so bad.

I don't agree however having to pay for another kids education when, I myself don't even want kids. I think there should be a system setup to not take so much from married/unmarried couples without kids. but take more from familes with kids that do go to school. it would be more fair to people without kids who have to give money to a school they don't have a kid who goes there.

I've thought about that a lot. I do think that good schools are essential to everyone regardless of having kids or not, so everyone should contribute. I do think that there should be a break on those without children though. It sure would make people think twice about unplanned or irresponsible parenthood if they had to pay a little more for their education. Too bad this would never fly though.

Also, with the lottery in the works, I wonder how this too will effect the need for additional money.

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How about roads? Do you accept the idea of paying for roads, even in your area, that you will never use? What about money for parks that you will never go to? This exact same formula applies to school. Even if we don't have kids, our tax money should go towards schools just the same as it does for any other form of infrastructure that benefits society. Sports are important in school, but I agree that money should be distributed more towards academics, arts, and vocation much more than sports.

There is a fine line between responsible spending and selfishness. And one's interpretation of this is of course very subjective--much like anything else political.

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uhhhg. I just meant the schools. I didn't say anything about roads, etc. If I did I would have indicated it in my post. Kids they can tell you have them or not. roads they can't tell! the formula don't apply the same as you think they can take the school portion and do it seperatly. and cut slack the people without kids. I think people are rushing into kids too much these days though. with the media making having them "hip" some teens that are fashion obessed irresponsable will want to have one since it goes with their new handbag. and the cute clothes and all. then they throw them around like a handbag.

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How about roads? Do you accept the idea of paying for roads, even in your area, that you will never use? What about money for parks that you will never go to? This exact same formula applies to school. Even if we don't have kids, our tax money should go towards schools just the same as it does for any other form of infrastructure that benefits society. Sports are important in school, but I agree that money should be distributed more towards academics, arts, and vocation much more than sports.

There is a fine line between responsible spending and selfishness. And one's interpretation of this is of course very subjective--much like anything else political.

Yeah...very touchy topic and I thought about that before I posted. Like I said before, it would never fly. I agree that money doesn't always get spent the way that it should. I hate seeing arts and music programs cut from a school's curriculum.

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well my schools arts couldnt even afford a dang paint brush set. they used the oldest things with goo allover them. and they used like 10,000 is one month to buy the team new jerseys that cost 200/peice! and also to have a new floor in the gym that didnt need one it was only 3 years old! they needlessly replaced it!

another of the 12 schools they wasted money on going to a trip to florida for band. they blew 20,000 on it (not from fundraisers or the like actual school savings act money!) and then they came back the next day since the teacher hated the bugs! what a waste! 20,000 in one day! they never got the money back since the teacher didnt want to deal with the companies again. She was a wuss that complaiend about everything including how imperfect everyone else in band was and how perfect she was. I hated her.glad I chose not to go on the trip. I quit band after that crap. I sold my clarinet and never wanted to think about band ever again.

school number 6 made a bet to another school that thier team would beat the others, what was lost 6,000! the teachers pooled money together from thier own paychecks on this one!

and school number 8, they blew 30,000 on computers that were 3 years old and paid approx 2,000 a piece! I would never pay that much for a 3yr old system!

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I think public schools donn't spend the money right though. The tax money is mostly spent on the sports teams of the school so they can have the best equpiment rather then the best stuff to get kids a learnin.

This is what makes me PO! My schools (the 12 I went to) were all like this. They had the best dang teams but the schools still used computers from '95 era and still used books from 1950! I think they should allocate money better. Then school taxes would'nt be so bad.

I don't agree however having to pay for another kids education when, I myself don't even want kids. I think there should be a system setup to not take so much from married/unmarried couples without kids. but take more from familes with kids that do go to school. it would be more fair to people without kids who have to give money to a school they don't have a kid who goes there.

This is not what the bond issue is for. The bond issue is mostly raising money for capital construction. So many more students means we need more school buildings- which is expensive. More expensive than spending on sports or the arts. This will help us get rid of trailers.

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For those of you who don't want to pay for schools because you don't have kids, I don't want to pay for the fire department to save someone elses property from burning, I don't want to pay for the police substation on the other side of town, and so on.

Public schools provide a necessity for the community and the community needs to support them.

JB

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I don't have a problem supporting school building with a tax increase.

With all the growth our area has experienced and continues to experience, I see a tax increase as inevitable. We definitely don't want our kids in trailer classrooms indefinitely.

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