Reason #3 to Vote No on Question 1
Oct. 5th, 2008 08:51 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
asterrocI've been telling everyone that should the income tax be repealed, that we'd lose critical services like police and firefighters, as well as massive K-12 teacher layoffs. I'm kinda surprised and disappointed that no one has challenged me on it. Surprised b/c the state doesn't directly pay for any of these, the towns/cities/districts do, and disappointed b/c I now have a perfect comeback.
This interactive map, created by the Massachusetts Teachers Association (MTA) shows the predicted result of a 37% statewide budget cut on all the towns in the state, both the overall state budget, and the school budgets. The state legislature won't be able to just make a 37% cut across the board with all the line items in the state budget, since some items are mandatory, and it wouldn't even make sense to do so, since some items receive federal matching funds reducing those would be shooting yourself in the foot twice. Well that map takes all that into account.
Most towns would actually lose 65% of their state funding, not the mere 37% of the income tax cut. And school districts will lose anywhere from 10% (New Ashford) to 91% (Middletown). Yikes. Hover over the map to see how much your town would lose, and click on your town for more details.
This interactive map, created by the Massachusetts Teachers Association (MTA) shows the predicted result of a 37% statewide budget cut on all the towns in the state, both the overall state budget, and the school budgets. The state legislature won't be able to just make a 37% cut across the board with all the line items in the state budget, since some items are mandatory, and it wouldn't even make sense to do so, since some items receive federal matching funds reducing those would be shooting yourself in the foot twice. Well that map takes all that into account.
Most towns would actually lose 65% of their state funding, not the mere 37% of the income tax cut. And school districts will lose anywhere from 10% (New Ashford) to 91% (Middletown). Yikes. Hover over the map to see how much your town would lose, and click on your town for more details.
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no subject
Date: 2008-10-05 05:14 pm (UTC)i'm sorry, i don't mean to undermine your generally very good argument, but ‘we should leave this out of the picture because it's mandatory spending’ is one of the things i'm always especially suspicious of.
of course, it could be mandatory at the federal level or according to the state constitution, in which case you'd be more screwed.
(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2008-10-08 07:50 am (UTC)Possible financial chaos - what else is new?
Four color maps - cool.