RE: [Leica] OT Subsidies to private schools VERY OT..;-)

["bdcolen" <bdcolen@earthlink.net>]

I am NOT suggestion that renters shouldn't have the same rights as
property owners - nor am I suggesting that renters don't pay their fair
share of burdens. I was NOT attacking renters. I was only trying to
point out that those getting vouchers end up taking more money OUT of
the public school system than they put in. (I was attempting to defend
public funding of education.)

- -----Original Message-----
From: owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
[mailto:owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us] On Behalf Of Tim
Atherton
Sent: Monday, September 15, 2003 1:35 PM
To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
Subject: RE: [Leica] OT Subsidies to private schools VERY OT..;-)



> in fact, most of them are probably renters, paying no property taxes, 
> and property taxes are, in most areas, what pay for public schools. So

> the money for a voucher system sure does come ultimately from public 
> school funds.

As a former renter... I'd like to point out that we DO pay taxes - just
not directly. Do you think the building owner gets their money from
somewhere else to pay their property taxes?

A portion of what you pay in rent goes to pay the property taxes for
your rental property - but because we are still stuck with some kind of
18th century notion of property, ownership, taxes and voting rights,
somehow there is the view that renters don't pay property taxes and so
don't have quite the same rights as the property owner....

I never could get round the notion that somehow, the guy who owns my
property got to vote in municipal election because he "paid taxes" with
the money I paid to him, but for some reason I couldn't vote... I'd
never come across that until I came to N America. Someone correct me if
I'm wrong, but in the UK, as a citizen, I seem to recall that I could
vote in all national, county and borough elections.

tim

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