Save the cheerleaders...

...and the nerds.

I've officially crossed over from "Eccentric Margie" to "Crazy Marge" with this—I've gone and written a letter to The Daily Show. But dammit, I'm not taking this crap lying down. Here's my rant:

Mr. Stewart,

I live in Volusia County, Florida, fertile ground for "The Daily Show" humor thanks to our apparent inability to vote properly in the 2000 presidential election. I wanted to alert you to another round of idiocy here in Volusia.

Since this is Florida, our voters come from the "screw them" school of paying for anything via taxes. Combine this with a large population of FOPs (f'ing old people) and pseudo-Republicans (you know, the people who are solidly in the demographic most often overlooked by the GOP, yet who somehow identify most with them in some sort of weird Helsinki Syndrome behavior), and you get a place where education is, ah, undervalued.

Now, thanks to the housing bust, our schools' main sources of what tax funds they get have been drastically reduced--to the point where the Volusia County school system has lost a significant chunk of their operating budget.

How significant? Enough that as of this semester, all extracurricular activities are to be suspended. As are JV sports and cheerleading, academic competitions, all the sorts of things that those silly college admissions people look for on a student's resume. Florida will be having a state science fair, for example, but no one from Volusia County will be there because there's no county fair. These cuts follow on an absolute bloodletting in teacher staffing at the beginning of the year.

But that's just this year. Next year, our superintendent has announced, all art and music programs will be eliminated. As will all sports. All of them. All accelerated programs, such as AP and IB (International Baccalaureate), will be cut. So if your kid is college-bound, they'd better not aspire to a nationally ranked school, because they're going to be way behind the curve. Not that they would have anything on their college applications or could afford to go anyway, because these two programs are the main sources of state academic scholarships in Florida. But apparently not for Volusia County students anymore.

The economic "powerhouse" of our county is Daytona Beach, land of Harleys, strip clubs and spring break. (I'll pause a minute so we can all let out a big "yyyeeeaaaahhh!" redneck scream.) We're just up the road from the cultural mecca that is Orlando. Either city provides ample illustration of the dumbing of America, and a perfect backdrop for the story of the county that decided a mediocre education was all the public owed to its kids.

I have attached a link from a story in our local newspaper, The Daytona Beach News Journal, detailing some of the budget proposals. Our school superintendent is holding meetings around the county to solicit opinions about these cuts; the next one is Wednesday at 6:30 in Port Orange, Fla. This is exactly the kind of story "The Daily Show" could cover appropriately and in all its sad, nuanced stupidity. Please let me know if there is any way possible that you might be interested in the story, and if there's anything I could do to help.

Give em hell Marjorie. Good luck with the story.

Very nice, but I hope no one goes to far in calling you "Crazy Marge", I'm not sure how much more patio you have room for.

Just please don't tell us that GRM HQ is now the home of your 50 wonderful cats. That's when you'll cross the line to Crazy Cat Lady Margie. That's always a bad line to cross.

it all starts with that first cat.

It doesn't officially start until the fourth concurrent cat.

So... is Margie less interested in deck expansions and more interested in constructing a new Auto-X venue?

Hey Margie:

I'm curious- How has the the housing bust directly impacted the school's operating budget so quickly?

It seems to me that there will obviously be an impact, in reduced appraisals which lead to lower assessments, but I'm thinking this should have a delayed reaction.

Additionally, I can see how falling growth projections would lead to lower estimates of projected growth in revenues, but I'm missing how that effects the existing revenue base.

Aren't the majority of the taxes collected from owner's of properties which are not changing hands? Shouldn't they still be paying their taxes? Doesn't their assessment effectively remain flat until property values in the neighborhood drop and then related appraisals also drop? Are you experiencing huge losses in POPULATION locally, or only big differences in population GROWTH?

I think you are very right to be pissed at the board's decisions. I'm just trying to understand the link to the housing bust.

neon4891 wrote: Very nice, but I hope no one goes to far in calling you "Crazy Marge", I'm not sure how much more patio you have room for.

I thought Cincinnati indefinitely retained the rights to the name "Crazy Marge?"

Stupid Republicans. (It's okay to say "Stupid Republicans," right?)

SVreX wrote: Hey Margie: I'm curious- How has the the housing bust directly impacted the school's operating budget so quickly? It seems to me that there will obviously be an impact, in reduced appraisals which lead to lower assessments, but I'm thinking this should have a delayed reaction. Additionally, I can see how falling growth projections would lead to lower estimates of projected growth in revenues, but I'm missing how that effects the existing revenue base. Aren't the majority of the taxes collected from owner's of properties which are not changing hands? Shouldn't they still be paying their taxes? Doesn't their assessment effectively remain flat until property values in the neighborhood drop and then related appraisals also drop? Are you experiencing huge losses in POPULATION locally, or only big differences in population GROWTH? I think you are very right to be pissed at the board's decisions. I'm just trying to understand the link to the housing bust.

Are there large numbers of forclosed houses sitting empty there like in Southern California, Nevada and Arizona? If people aren't making house payments, they are not making property tax payments either. In theory the bank should be making property tax payments on the forclosed ones, but if the bank or mortgage company is broke....

The only other thing I can think of is that they are projecting lower property taxes and they are re-assessing properties to lower taxes. I don't know about Florida, but they are not doing this in Texas. My assessment actually went up this year. I can't think of any County where they would actually go out of the way to re-assess your property when values are going down.

Salanis wrote: So... is Margie less interested in deck expansions and more interested in constructing a new Auto-X venue?

If thats the case...

jde wrote:

neon4891 wrote: Very nice, but I hope no one goes to far in calling you "Crazy Marge", I'm not sure how much more patio you have room for.

I thought Cincinnati indefinitely retained the rights to the name "Crazy Marge?"

Hey, old Marge was a class act, let her rest in peace.

Now if only we could get rid of Mike Brown....

Snow, mine gets reassessed almost every year, always up. If your house is worth more you pay more in taxes. I haven't even mowed the lawn for beautification, but they said it's worth $37,000 more than it was 18 months ago.

Welcome to New York.

Margie, good luck. Aside from getting the Daily Show involved, are there decent private schools in your area? I can tell you first hand that extracirricular activities and volunteerism with a mediocre grade carries more weight that a bored straight "A" student.

Dan

That is so well written that it will actually get to Jon.

And I'll bet he LOVES it!

Well met, girl.

914Driver wrote: Margie, good luck. Aside from getting the Daily Show involved, are there decent private schools in your area? I can tell you first hand that extracirricular activities and volunteerism with a mediocre grade carries more weight that a bored straight "A" student.

Yeah, Tommy needs some sort of extra-curricular activity.

Snowdoggie wrote:

SVreX wrote: Hey Margie: I'm curious- How has the the housing bust directly impacted the school's operating budget so quickly? It seems to me that there will obviously be an impact, in reduced appraisals which lead to lower assessments, but I'm thinking this should have a delayed reaction. Additionally, I can see how falling growth projections would lead to lower estimates of projected growth in revenues, but I'm missing how that effects the existing revenue base. Aren't the majority of the taxes collected from owner's of properties which are not changing hands? Shouldn't they still be paying their taxes? Doesn't their assessment effectively remain flat until property values in the neighborhood drop and then related appraisals also drop? Are you experiencing huge losses in POPULATION locally, or only big differences in population GROWTH? I think you are very right to be pissed at the board's decisions. I'm just trying to understand the link to the housing bust.

Are there large numbers of forclosed houses sitting empty there like in Southern California, Nevada and Arizona? If people aren't making house payments, they are not making property tax payments either. In theory the bank should be making property tax payments on the forclosed ones, but if the bank or mortgage company is broke.... The only other thing I can think of is that they are projecting lower property taxes and they are re-assessing properties to lower taxes. I don't know about Florida, but they are not doing this in Texas. My assessment actually went up this year. I can't think of any County where they would actually go out of the way to re-assess your property when values are going down.

Ding ding ding ding! Snowdoggie FTW. The answer is: Both. Fewer taxpayers due to foreclosed houses, and lower assessments. Also, the enrollment numbers are lower than was projected when the schools got their funds at the opening of the year, and are projected to drop further, so less $$ there.

And Dan, there are not really any outstanding private school options. There is an IB program one county to our north; I've already called their school board to see if they'll accept Volusia IB students and was met with some interest. I'll sue our loser county for voucher funds on the basis of failure to provide a path for state academic scholarships and go there if I have to. I'm just gettin' started.

As for extracurricular activities, I agree. At the very least I'll keep Tommy and Katie busy next year with shovels.

Margie

whuwhuWHAT?

Tommy is more than capable of operating a Bobcat.

If you read fark.com at all, you're familiar with Florida.

Fark.com lists there stories like so: published source (LATimes, NY Post, etc.), a humorous tag sourced from a pool created by the site admins, headline describing the story.

Florida is so prominently listed on this news site of the weird that it is the only state with it's own humorous tag.

I always shake my head when hearing people without kids griping about paying for schools. If they aren't in school they sure aren't going to be able to pay for your welfare, social security and all via their payroll taxes later. Short changing schools is a short sighted strategy.

Xceler8x wrote: If you read fark.com at all, you're familiar with Florida. Fark.com lists there stories like so: published source (LATimes, NY Post, etc.), a humorous tag sourced from a pool created by the site admins, headline describing the story. Florida is so prominently listed on this news site of the weird that it is the only state with it's own humorous tag. I always shake my head when hearing people without kids griping about paying for schools. If they aren't in school they sure aren't going to be able to pay for your welfare, social security and all via their payroll taxes later. Short changing schools is a short sighted strategy.

yup. just look at texas

neon4891 wrote: Very nice, but I hope no one goes to far in calling you "Crazy Marge", I'm not sure how much more patio you have room for.

That's better than "Large Marge".

poopshovel wrote: Stupid Republicans. (It's okay to say "Stupid Republicans," right?)

Sure. You just can't say 'Stupid Democrats'.

(I bet I now have a spot marked off in Margie's patio. )

Well written, Margie! You think Stewart may want to do a remote from World HQ?

Stupid doesn't know party lines. (Witness old Blagowhatever of the hair helmet)

Snowdoggie wrote:

SVreX wrote: Hey Margie: I'm curious- How has the the housing bust directly impacted the school's operating budget so quickly? It seems to me that there will obviously be an impact, in reduced appraisals which lead to lower assessments, but I'm thinking this should have a delayed reaction. Additionally, I can see how falling growth projections would lead to lower estimates of projected growth in revenues, but I'm missing how that effects the existing revenue base. Aren't the majority of the taxes collected from owner's of properties which are not changing hands? Shouldn't they still be paying their taxes? Doesn't their assessment effectively remain flat until property values in the neighborhood drop and then related appraisals also drop? Are you experiencing huge losses in POPULATION locally, or only big differences in population GROWTH? I think you are very right to be pissed at the board's decisions. I'm just trying to understand the link to the housing bust.

Are there large numbers of forclosed houses sitting empty there like in Southern California, Nevada and Arizona? If people aren't making house payments, they are not making property tax payments either. In theory the bank should be making property tax payments on the forclosed ones, but if the bank or mortgage company is broke.... The only other thing I can think of is that they are projecting lower property taxes and they are re-assessing properties to lower taxes. I don't know about Florida, but they are not doing this in Texas. My assessment actually went up this year. I can't think of any County where they would actually go out of the way to re-assess your property when values are going down.

There are two primary sources of taxes in Florida. Property tax, which as described above is down, and sales tax. That's WAY down and really ripping a hole in the state budget. With no personal state income tax, it's really up to those two taxes to carry the budget. Both are sucking wind.

Strizzo wrote:

Xceler8x wrote: If you read fark.com at all, you're familiar with Florida. Fark.com lists there stories like so: published source (LATimes, NY Post, etc.), a humorous tag sourced from a pool created by the site admins, headline describing the story. Florida is so prominently listed on this news site of the weird that it is the only state with it's own humorous tag. I always shake my head when hearing people without kids griping about paying for schools. If they aren't in school they sure aren't going to be able to pay for your welfare, social security and all via their payroll taxes later. Short changing schools is a short sighted strategy.

yup. just look at texas

Strangely enough, most of the people in my office didn't go to school in Texas. They went to schools subsidized by taxpayers in California and in Eastern States, then moved here to take advantage of the low taxes and the lower cost of living, just as I did.