Friedman Libertarian

A mini-rant by the Captain got me going today regarding what has become the flight of the middle class.

Outside of Austin TX, and in Texas in general, you got punished for owning a home. While the realtors ran ads touting home ownership with interest rates at historic lows, the Texas legislature continued to spend more money and put more burden on those who actually owned homes.

In lefty cities like Austin, they passed new taxing districts to pay for things like the local hospital so that it didn’t go out of service because of all the indigent (i.e. illegal alien) services they provided.

So I moved from that Tax Paradise to New Jersey, with a lesson learned; do not own a home in an area run by liberals.

Your typical Big City is run by Liberals, and inhabited by those who vote those liberals into office. Don’t believe me? Take a look at who the Mayor is in the ten largest cities in the US:

1: New York City - Bloomberg (D)
2: Los Angeles - Villaraigosa (D)
3: Chicago - Daley (D)
4: Houston - White (D)
5: Philadelphia - Street (D)
6: Phoenix - Gordon (D)
7: San Antonio - Hardberger (D)
8: San Diego - Sanders (R)
9: Dallas - Leppert (R)
10: San Jose - Reed (D)

Starting with New York City (Yea, I know, easy target there), NYC residents have the largest tax burden of anywhere in the country. A home owner in NYC not only pays Federal and State taxes, but also pays a City income tax, which is levied on anyone who works in NYC or lives in NYC. No wonder London is becoming the world’s financial capitol. According to the NYC Government’s site the minimum tax rate is $10.05 per $100 of valuation. Note, however, Guliani’s years, 1994 to 2001, the rate actually declined, but up until then, Koch and Dinkins increased taxes every year.

In Los Angeles, their way of computing your property tax rate is so convoluted, there’s no listing of all the taxes on the website, only on your bill.

Chicago is around $6 per $100.

In general, the cost of living in a large city is pushing out the middle class; They can’t afford to live there anymore. You’re ending up with a donut of a society in these large cities; those who either can get around paying taxes, those to whom taxes are a pittance, those who don’t pay taxes, and those who have lived in the city so long they’ve been grandfathered into tax breaks.

The problem with Texas taxes was not that they were all that high, it was that your taxes did not stay in your district. They had implemented a “Robin Hood” taxing plan, which stole from the rich (suburbs) and paid for the poor (inner cities). The Texas Supreme court ruled against this as being unconstitutional, but the legislature, 3 years later have yet do properly address things. This was bad for students in Texas: the poor got the majority of the money but did not perform, and the rich got less and less money and performance dropped off. The typical “Rich” district was only able to keep 35% of their revenues. A later “fix” to the issue set it so that no district would send out more than 35%, with the difference to be made up by “sin” taxes. A local Austin talk radio host after the passing of the bill chided the city’s new No Smoking law as hurting children by robbing them of their education.

If $3 per $100 in value is overbearing in Texas, NJ has it worse. Cities like Newark see as much as $7 per $100. Add this on to a state income tax, and you truly know why Half of New Jerseyans want out.

Another tax funny in Newark is that the city (and state) spend over $11100 a year per student. A Catholic Day school in Newark costs less than $4k per year for a student. Christ the King Catholic school is $2500 a year. Saint Benedict Prep is $5100 a year.

Now, why would a Catholic School education help?

And as much as the AP writer tried to ignore it, he did report that Catholic schools are best for your child.

So, this goes back to charter schools and the proper spending of tuition. As much as liberals want us to be like Europe or Canada, with Socialized Health Care, or with 35 hour work weeks, mass transit, etc, the one thing they don’t want to import is European-style school funding, like the Dutch. The model there is that the money follows the student, wherever they go.

But still, how do you keep the middle class in a city? I don’t think there’s going to be a change; liberals will continue to tax those with money so to give those who don’t have money. These who don’t have money will then vote for more spending, and drive even more from the city. Either cut the taxes, cut the entitlements, or be schooled by Arthur Laffer.