Don't forget about your local politics too...

The information I am about to give you only applies to Gwinnett County residents but the purpose of this post is to make sure we are not forgetting about our local politics either.

With as much complaining about taxes and the public schools system as I do, this information is extremely disturbing.

This information is within the 2007 Gwinnett County budget. In 2007, the property tax on a $200k house will be $2,384.70. That is 1.19%....that is high...much higher than several surrounding counties. Now, what does that property tax go to? I bet most of you think "oh, it's going to all of those road improvements going on..."......WRONG!!!! 66% ($1,567) is going toward the crappy public schools!!! 66%!!! Only 33.2% is actually going to the county ($798.20) and .8% is going to the state ($19.50)! Total property tax revenue for 2007 is $265 MILLION dollars, that means $175 MILLION dollars of OUR tax money will be used for our lousy public schools in Gwinnett County alone. $175 MILLION DOLLARS!!! Let that sink in for a second. That sounds like alot huh...

I could take this discussion several different ways now but the purpose was just to show you where you money is going. My wish would be for my property taxes to go to things like making 316 a limited access highway like it should be...not going toward the crappy schools. Red-lights on a highway is ridiculous...that affects me directly. I don't have kids and when I do, I am going to do everything I can to make sure they don't have to be subjected to the government school system. Let people keep there money and put it towards something like home-schooling or private school. Do you know why the government is against that idea...??? Because that does 2 big things to them...1) it takes away power, control would be removed from them, control=power and 2) it inserts competition into the school systems, the government really doesn't like competition...why...it takes away power. Competition usually doesn't necessarily take away power, it increases it, but in the case of the government, it would.