My thanks to South Carolina Legislators for keeping my taxes low
I'd like to thank our South Carolina legislators and Governor for the work they do to making lower taxes their number one priority.First, on behalf of educators, I'd like to thank legislators for allowing teachers the privilege of teaching more and more students in each classroom. I don't know many teachers. However, I suspect that - if they're anything like those who get paid on a piecework basis - they would have twice the sense of accomplishment if they can say they've taught 30 students in a class rather than just 15 or so. As a result, according to South Carolina Education Superintendent Jim Rex, we may have 2500 less teachers next year. That's actually terrific, because we'll have 2500 people who are going to be paying a lot less in taxes. I think they'll appreciate that, but I'll have to check with them.
I'd also like to thank the legislators for encouraging what should be an actual program - the Paperless Classroom Initiative. This program would continue to discourage, through the budget process, the use of paper, pencils, and other types of school supplies in the classroom. I'm guessing legislators are doing this because they realize that every K-12 student in the state is carrying a laptop to class. Either that, or they know that teachers are more than proud to do their part by paying for supplies out of their own pockets. And these signs of financial progress in education are saving me tax dollars.
I'd like to thank legislators for their budget cutting in the area of healthcare - particularly Medicaid. The House is planning to cut breast cancer screenings for 16,000 poor South Carolina women and limit poor patients to three prescription drugs a month. (Who needs more than 3 prescriptions a month, anyway?) In late 2008, $40,000 alone was saved by not enrolling HIV-positive people. Further money was saved by eliminating hospice care for Medicaid-only people, decreasing assistance for prescription drug costs for the low-income and elderly populations, and cutting many other programs. I'm not on Medicaid and I've got pretty good insurance, so these cuts don't affect me. And these cuts are saving me tax dollars.
I'd like to thank legislators for their creative work in determining the budget for the Department of Social Services. Within the past few days I've read that between 2008 and 2009, South Carolina cut $50 million in state expenditures by lowering the DSS budget. On top of that, they went above and beyond by saving us from taking a matching $50 million in federal expenditures (by losing federal matching funds). Two cuts for the price of one - I'm very proud. The article said that, as a result, social workers are getting more and more overloaded and children are suffering. I've sure that's just a bunch of Obama liberals complaining again. There was something in the article about "not meeting national standards", but we need to tell Washington that we believe in states rights and aren't interesting in their darn "standards". All I know is that these cuts are saving me tax dollars.
I'd like to thank legislators for keeping tight-fisted control on the flow on money to the arts. We need to remember our priorities. For example, the governor's proposal to cut $6 million from the budget of the South Carolina Arts Council would go a long way in decimating silly programs like Arts in Education. I've never understood why kids need to learn stuff like jazz and dance. The Arts Council has a lot of other programs for adults, but to be honest, who needs them? And every dollar we cut to the arts is a fraction of a cent back in my pocket.
So, South Carolina legislators, keep up the good work. Remember that I don't want you to invest in our communities if it means I might have to pay a couple more dollars a year in taxes.
Oh, one more thing. When is the next tax-free buy-a-gun day going to be?
posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 10:39 AM
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