City has money problems? (San Antonio, Anton: insurance, how much, unemployment rate)

[toc1996]

All I know according Forbes, SA has the highest debt per population in the country. For cities over 1mil residents.....@$90k per person

Bonds bonds and more bonds create this issue. One we will have to address at one point..

[BestintheWest]

Originally Posted by toc1996

All I know according Forbes, SA has the highest debt per population in the country. For cities over 1mil residents.....@$90k per person

Bonds bonds and more bonds create this issue. One we will have to address at one point..

Great point, one people either do not get, do not understand or have their heads in the sand. But one day the bill will come due.

[dpantle]

Originally Posted by toc1996

All I know according Forbes, SA has the highest debt per population in the country. For cities over 1mil residents.....@$90k per person

Bonds bonds and more bonds create this issue. One we will have to address at one point..

Not that I disagree with you at all, you have a valid complaint about San Antonio's debt. Your numbers are incorrect though. Divide by 10.

The residents of San Antonio are to blame for this of course, as they voted in these bonds in the first place. It always make me cringe when I listen to the radio when the city is pushing a bond election. One of the primary selling points is that the city maintains a AAA rating on it's debt. The voters swallow this pitch every time.

But then again you only have to look at your elected officials, and what programs they get voted in, to understand what sells at the polls in SA. High debt is only a symptom of what is wrong.

[Bo]

Originally Posted by dpantle

But then again you only have to look at your elected officials, and what programs they get voted in, to understand what sells at the polls in SA. High debt is only a symptom of what is wrong.

Whatever the mayor wants, the mayor gets. He can always count on 7 or 8 of the 10 votes on the council.

[Zone Read]

Raise taxes? Contribute another grand or so? Are you serious? I pay income tax on my salary, Social security tax (which I'll probably never see) and Medicare just out of my paycheck. I pay property tax that comes out to another 4% of my yearly take home pay. I pay sales tax at over 8% on almost everything I buy. I pay user fees, car registration fees, occupational taxes. I pay additional taxes on utilities, gasoline, etc. Everywhere you look there's some additional mandated fee for disposing of something or funding some stupid government project. Our mayor just added a new tax for babysitting some person's kids who decided that breeding without the income to raise your children was a good idea. When you factor every tax, fee and hidden government charge, I guarantee I pay over 50% of my income back to the government. The various taxing authorities take all this money from me and its not enough. The Feds spend twice as much as they take in. When does it stop? We revolted against the British for taxing us at a 3% rate. Now its over 15 times that and we still continue to vote for politicians, who like the British did, tax us without representing us. We truly get the government we deserve.

[datacity]

Originally Posted by Zone Read

We truly get the government we deserve.

Yep.

Happy 4th of July!

[TexHwyMan]

Originally Posted by Readerfeeder

Well, I'll give you this: your post made me laugh out loud. Our property taxes are ridiculous here. Another "grand" a year? No way- it's one of the top reasons we are selling and moving on.

One of the reasons property taxes are so high here is because we don't pay a state or local income tax.

[L210]

Originally Posted by KM1174

taxes NEED to be raised. it works. look at the national economy. while not as fast a recovery as some want, it is still happening. raising taxes helps. texans have enjoyed low property taxes for quite some time. it wont hurt you to contribute an extra grand or so at the end of the year.

Taxes were lowered after the recession hit.

[Readerfeeder]

Originally Posted by TexHwyMan

One of the reasons property taxes are so high here is because we don't pay a state or local income tax.

I understand that, but for us, it's still better to go back home where our military retirement income won't be taxed, work small part-time jobs, and pay about 1/3 of the property taxes we do here.

[dpantle]

Originally Posted by L210

Taxes were lowered after the recession hit.

You mean ASSESSMENTS were lowered, don't you?

Educate me if I'm wrong, I don't live in SA.