I will clarify for you. Renters pay property taxes through the person who owns the property. If there were no property taxes, then the market would lower the rent.
Of course you’re right. But they are not sent an actual property tax bill.
My dad owned quite a few rental properties in our city, and he was known and loved for charging very cheap rents compared to other landlords. I don’t think he made any profit to speak of. He just like collecting houses and properties and providing them for people. Many of his tenants were people who couldn’t afford high rents.
But I realize that many landlords don’t run their businesses this way. My dad was able to do it because he also worked other jobs.
pnewton, I know you take issue with my opinion of public school teachers, but please keep in mind that you do not live where I live.
I assure you that I am not a maverick in this city when it comes to this issue. Many people in our city feel the same way about the schools and about the attitudes of the teachers who seem to be willing to strike almost every year (including this year because of the COVID pandemic), and who have several times held strikes that have essentially blackmailed parents into giving in to teacher demands.
The teachers in our city are paid well, and the starting salaries are around $62,000 in a city where unemployment has been high for ages (it was dropping in the first three years of the Trump Administration and old factories were opening again for the first time in decades–that’s all bust now because of COVID). That starting teacher salary is more than I make after working more than 30 years in a hospital lab.
My father-in-law taught in public schools for 17 years, and quit to work in factories when he was in his 40s. He is now 85, and has been receiving his teacher pension for decades–that pension is more than my husband makes in his job after more than 40 years as a systems administrator for a large information systems company.
I have no objection to good teachers receiving a high wage. But we have lived here now for over 30 years after moving back here from Raleigh, North Carolina to be close to our family. NEVER in all those years have the test scores on standardized testing been anywhere near good! Never! There are a few public schools where students at least achieve grade level, and a small percentage of the students bring in high scores in the 80th and 90th percentile.
But most of the schools have abysmal scores and every year, there is public outcry–we all see the writing on the wall! We live in a city where a large percentage of the population is essentially illiterate–it’s no wonder so many people, especially minorities and the poor, can’t seem to rise out of poverty. Until they are able to receive a good education, they will never be able to earn a good income from their own work.
In our city/county, “public schools” is the largest line item on the budget.
Again, you don’t live where I live. I do realize that other states and cities/towns have GOOD public schools with GOOD teachers who achieve miracles.
