Maybe I should ask for a property tax rebate since I don’t have any children or ever intend to?
Parents who home-school or send their children to private school save fellow South Dakota taxpayers more than $50 million a year, and 28 lawmakers think it’s time to give some of that money back.
House Bill 1173 proposes property tax rebates to offset the cost of private school tuition or home-school materials and resources. The benefit would be capped at 80 percent of the per-student allocation — around $3,700 next year per child — so most qualifying families would end up paying no property taxes to public education.
When are people going to realize that investing in education is a universal benefit?
Rob Monson, executive director of School Administrators of South Dakota, said taxpayers shouldn’t be able to get out of a tax just because they don’t directly benefit from the service.
“There are certain things that you pay taxes for that are for the betterment of all,†he said.
Well, Rob, that is not how Republicans think. If they are not directly profiting or benefitting from something, they believe they are being ripped off, even though, they do have the choice to put their kids in public school. As one of my friends said to me about putting his four kids through public school as opposed to private. “I’m paying dearly in property taxes, I am going to take full advantage of the public school system.”
The last thing we want to do is offer an incentive for people to homeschool their kids, because you can guarantee there will be a few people out there that realize they can save a few grand if they keep the kids at home even if their idea of home schooling involves watching Sesame Street for three hours a day.
It isn’t cheaper to home school when you factor in all of the costs, but that doesn’t mean people won’t try to find a way to save a buck. The end result isn’t a positive one for the kids – and that is who we should be thinking about.
As far as private school, that is a personal choice that a parent makes and it shouldn’t have any bearing on the property taxes paid. We all benefit from an educated society and it isn’t just about our own kids. Plus – most of us were educated in public schools, so we are just repaying for that benefit.
L3wis you have a very valid point about not having kids – so if they are going to reimburse people who home school their kids, what about those who don’t have kids? What about the elderly who haven’t had kids in school since the Nixon administration? Then shouldn’t families with six kids pay more property taxes than those with two kids, because if we are going to tie the tax level to usage of public schools it only stands to reason that we apply the same logic across the board right??
What a stupid, stupid idea. This better not make it out of committee.
Does this philosophy open up the state budget to everyone so individually opt out of any allocation they do not use? I am not disables, so any costs associated with that ought to be refunded to me; I do not farm, so all costs associated with those allocations to farmer ought to be refunded to me. I do not work in the state capitol, so any costs to heat it should not be paid by me.
Selfish individual greed is corrupting us.
It always amazes me how the wealthy who can afford to send their kids to private school bitch the loudest about paying for it.
Special benefits for special people. Isn’t it special.
If the private and home schoolers aren’t going to pay property taxes, then they shouldn’t be allowed in state sanctioned activities either.
I read this in the Argus today. Disgusting doesn’t even begin to cover it. So he wants a tax break because he sends his kids to private school and or the kid/s are home schooled–no doubt by a parent who does not have a degree nor a teaching certificate. I don’t see him offering up a bill for all of us who have no children and have paid for their children to go to school for years.
I guess he is special. Or just another nit wit republican.
Repus tend to imagine that government is a variant of a business venture. fed by that “inefficiency of the government” vs. private businesses meme.
$50 million a year? I’m going to need to see that spreadsheet. Our taxes are our investment in public education for all. We pay for the education of all the workers we need to make society work, not just our own kids.
Let’s just eliminate all taxes and make everything pay as you go. So in that world……
When I go to work in the morning, I pay a toll on my way to work. When I go to Falls Parks, I pay a fee. When I get picked up for speeding, I pay the fine plus the cost of the officer’s time, gas, and vehicle overhead.
You want your street plowed today? Let me see your credit card. Oh, you don’t want your part of the street plowed. Your water main is broken. Don’t fix it, my neighbors and I can’t afford to have it fixed.
Out of towners need to pay a toll just to drive on OUR streets. Toll booths at the city limits on all roads leading in.
If I don’t need a degree to home school, why do I need a degree to teach at an institution?
They just can’t accept we have been a socialist democracy from the beginning.
It seems like another Republican attempt to defund public education. Next, they will expect people who send their kids to public schools, to pay extra money for armed guards at the “home schools.”
Wayne, don’t give them any ideas. I’m sure they will tie abortion into somehow also.
Most likely those “home schools” are probably armed already.
. . . yeah, with Bibles and chastity belts.
“Daddy get your gun!”