Bulldog Nation did a very nice bit of reporting into the streetcar issues surrounding the planned project due for construction in downtown Cincinnati. It’s well worth watching.
For those of you that don’t know who the “Bulldog” is, he’s Eric Deters, local attorney and part-time WLW host. He’s a passionate guy that I enjoy quite a bit. If the world had more people like Eric, we wouldn’t have too many problems in the country.
American’s don’t always have to agree. But American’s do need to care in order for our republic to work, and no one can accuse The Bulldog of not caring.
Now, because he is passionate, and I can relate, he has plenty of enemies. So for those of you that are putting together the name Eric Deters to the recent Enquirer controversy, you have to understand the nature of politics. Bulldog has recently produced a fantastic video dealing with the U.S. Border issues in Arizona, and now he’s done this thing on the streetcar. So special interests are coming after him.
One of the great things about Eric is he’s not afraid to speak up though, and I’ll put up his defense of those allocations here, so any doubts that might come up which might detract from the great video on the streetcar issue, can be settled right now.
And 5 to 10 years down the road, the streetcar will be another drain on our local economy. But it won’t be because the information wasn’t given to the public beforehand. It’ll be because people sat on their hands and did nothing.
Georgetta voteyeslakota@aol.com 75.185.0.41 Submitted on 2011/01/20 at 11:14 pm Evil prevails when good people do nothing. I am a good person and I am about good education. I am doing something: speaking out. Rich Hoffman is misleading people. Teachers teach children so they DON’T end up working themselves into an early grave and barely making payments on a lot in a trailer park. The good teachers will go elsewhere in order to make a living wage. Rich Hoffman raised children and his wife didn’t work. Apparently he is making too much money. Yet, I hear no one attacking him. Some of us have to have both parents work in order to put food on the table.
Georgetta here reflects many of the comments that I get from people who think just like her. The premise is this, that education is a right, they hide the actual numbers in the scribble of government bureaucracy, and if you show that you don’t support it, or if you even question their reasoning, they use “peer pressure” to shape the community to their will, just like kids on a playground. That’s the mentality. They end up sounding like children with their minds wrapped up in extreme assertions to make their points seem to carry more weight.
The first thing they do is attack you “the tax payer” and your ability to pay the increase in tax. They’ll say, “Public education was there for your children, but now that you don’t have children in the school, you don’t want to pay.” They do the same with business leaders, “We built the good schools and you provided the homes, and now you don’t want to pay.” What doesn’t get said is that as all this growth was going on, the LEA, the teachers union at Lakota, negotiated an aggressive contract in October of 2008 that was focused on wages and that contract is bankrupting the community because at the same time, indications were that state funding was on a decreasing trend. So the contract was irresponsible, and what is happening now, is the community is establishing the parameters of future contract negotiations, because we can’t trust school officials to do the job, otherwise it wouldn’t have gotten this far out of control.
These pro levy people will attempt to proclaim that nobody but them can look at the numbers and understand the situation. They sadly put out apologist groups to plead the case like what you will hear in the below interview. What they don’t want to discuss is why there is a financial crises. They simply discuss finance as if it were beyond their control. When listening to this interview ask these questions, if cutting only a million here, or there isn’t much because the numbers are so large, then why is it such a large savings that cutting busing to 9000 students will only save $600,000, then why cut busing? And how has Lakota done everything it can do before cutting busing. Did the LEA come to the bargaining table to renegotiate their contract? And how does the tax dollars stay in the district when the union spends the union dues on political candidates. One of the reasons the LEA wants its teachers to make so much is so that the teachers will want to pay their union dues without hardship. But nobody talks about any of that here. The sum of this discussion is that there isn’t an answer. These are nice parents that just want the system to work long enough for their children to get an education. Nobody wants to play the hot potato game when the music stops, and the music is stopping. All they can really do in an interview like this is paint over the dirt.
All businesses whether they are service oriented or manufacturing oriented have a responsibility to keep their costs in line. One way that businesses do that is to use the 10-80-10 rule as it’s applied to labor. That rule states that 10% of your workforce will be your typical “top” performers, and they will get the most dramatic increases, 4% to 15% depending on the situation. 80% of your workers are average, and will typically get a standard 2% to 3% increase, otherwise considered a “cost of living” increase. And of course every place of business has approximately 10% that are poor performers and they won’t get an increase of any kind. Why? Because those bottom 10% you want to look for another job, and you want them to leave so you don’t have to pay them. It gives you a chance to hire somebody that might want to compete for the top 10% percentile. If you manage things correctly, your bottom 10% are the kind of people that your competition is hiring at the middle 80%, and you want that so you can maintain a competitive edge.
What you don’t do is uniformly advance everyone in your place of business with some socialist “everybody is equal” policy like what we have in school systems, and unions advocate. That’s a disastrous concept and gives employees like Ryan Fahrenkemp time and the luxury of job security to participate in an evil deed like child pornography. I would argue from experience that if Ryan had to fear for his job, and didn’t feel comfortable hiding in the muddy 80%, he probably would have not indulged in his warped perversion while at school. He might have done it in hiding, or in his mother’s basement, but not with his students, and not with school equipment. And he certainly wouldn’t have been making 70K at only age 42 no matter how much experience he had with the amount of tenure he’d accumulated in a relatively short time.
I used Fahrenkemp as an example because he belonged in the bottom 10% and somebody didn’t do their job in the review process of weeding him out. And that didn’t happen because he was protected by the complicated process created by the OEA which the president of the LEA had been a big part of, and knew how to manipulate the system to the advantage of her members.
I’d say you are, by telling the tax payers that the budget just “grows” on its own. That the school system had no way to deal with people like Fahrenkemp, and that all teachers are worth over 62K, and if the community doesn’t pay it, those beloved teachers will leave the district for another one.
I would say any teacher that would leave Lakota is only in it for the money, and those are personalities that I would rate low on a review, and may be tempted to put them on the bottom 10% anyway, so for them to leave would be desirable.
All the Yes Lakota people have to argue with is emotion,
• “The money is for the kids.” No it’s not, if it was, the LEA wouldn’t have threatened to strike in 2008 to get more money, and again in the spring of 2010.
• “We have to offer top pay for top teachers or they will leave.” No they won’t because the other districts are broke too and are getting ready to go through the same process Lakota is.
• “We have to protect property values by voting for the schools.” No you don’t. If taxes keep increasing that will kill real estate values anyway, tax payers in the district already pay $11 per $1000 assessment on their property.
• “I’m for education.” No you’re not. If you were, you’d keep the budget under $160 million. Throwing money at something doesn’t mean you’re for education. It means you don’t value the source of the money but want what the money can buy.
• “We have had explosive growth and must adjust to it.” Growth, like budgets can be controlled. If the cost is too high, growth will slow down, and growth will slow down because of the economy. Growth will also slow down from parents wanting to go to Lakota who aren’t willing to pay for the extra things they want, too. One of the reasons Yes People want sports and extracurricular activities is so enrollment will increase, so parents looking for those items can move to the district and participate cheaply. It’s all about job creating and getting parents used to programs that the district tax payers fund collectively. No different from colleges with NCAA programs that are nationally known for their sports, will see increases in enrollment. It’s always about increased enrollment so money can be justified.
• “The state is forcing us to all-day kindergarten.” No, the OEA lobbied to get all-day kindergarten passed, and the Republicans in the state house are getting ready to eliminate that unfunded mandate along with many other mandates lacking funding. So that anticipated requirement will be taken away from district budgets.
• “We have to spend $50,000 dollars to get the best superintendent we can get.” No, you are throwing money at the situation like you do everything else. It’s that kind of mentality that locked us into the contract with the LEA that is causing the current financial crises. Money does not equal quality. It seldom does. Money can be used to create competition, but it is useless without competition. If money is not getting you dramatic results, it is simply killing your budget.
• “Paying for a school levy keeps your money in the community.” No it doesn’t. The union dues collected by school unions are directly applied to liberal politicians that further perpetuate the bureaucratic mess creating expensive economic necessity. The OEA had revenue of over $62 million dollars in 2008. Where did that money come from? They don’t make any products that they can sell? Check the info for yourself here. http://teachersunionexposed.com/state.cfm?state=OH All that money comes from union dues, paid from the salaries of teachers that are paid exceptionally well by the local tax payers. The average pay at Lakota for teachers is 62K per year. So the money doesn’t stay in the community.
And you Yes Lakota people go ahead and leave your comments. I’ll post them, and I’ll use them. People need to see your thoughts. For those of you wanting to see some of them, read the comments here. I am quite aware that there are many people at many levels reading all the posts I’ve put up here and you’re looking for a way to spin it to your advantage. For an example, have a look at the work David Little from Progress Ohio attempted. I’m happy to fight your sloppy facts with the truth and if you want to spin the community around and make them so dizzy they can’t tell which way is up or down, I’ll continue to prevent it, as I have. And I’ll do it because I love my community, and I want to see education continue to be an option for families in the future. But it won’t be in a form controlled by organized labor. Those days are over.
Don’t believe me; read this from your parent union the OEA, this is how bad the financial situation is. Even the union staff is threatening to strike and the union itself is participating in union busting strategies.
The Ohio Education Association and Its Goose
The executives of the Ohio Education Association sent a memo informing local presidents that if the union gave in to striking staffers’ demands, it would require an $80 to $90 dues increase per member. Such an increase would raise roughly $10 million. That sounded familiar to me, so I checked the archives and found this, in the May 8, 2000 EIA Communiqué: Ohio Education Association in Severe Financial Straits. The last time the Ohio Education Association negotiated a staff contract, in September 1997, it resulted in a two-week strike, restraining orders against picketers, and a lot of bad publicity. That contract expires this year and it’s bad financial news all around for OEA, its members, and the staff. OEA recently informed its local presidents that the union is facing a projected deficit of $6.3 million for next year. The union is asking staff to accept benefit cuts totaling $4 million. The rest of the deficit would be eliminated through a dues increase of up to $25 per member.
“Specifically, and regrettably, we can no longer afford to sustain the current number of OEA employees at their current level of compensation and benefits and continue to provide the expected level of services and programs without significantly raising OEA dues for you and every other member,” reads a memo from OEA President Mike Billirakis and Executive Director Robert Barkley.
If our community is going to continue to be a “great” and “excellent” district, we have to get in front of this problem. Not avoid it by tossing more money at the problem. And the Yes Lakota people need to listen to the No Lakota People, because the solution is in good business strategy. The same tired old bullet points won’t be valid any longer. I’ll make sure of it.
As more and more facts come in about the Arizona shooting, and the left oriented continue to complain about the vitriol coming from talk shows and radio I think the honest question deserves to be asked. Why is there anger?
Did it ever occur to any of those left oriented people when Nancy Pelosi marched with her gavel up the Capital steps locked arm and arm forcing Americans to a Health Care Bill that they didn’t want, and subverted many legislative steps in the process to accomplish the task, that there wouldn’t be anger?
Are the American people supposed to just be happy about Constitutional subversion, or by-passing congress all together to pass Net Neutrality? Did they really think there wouldn’t be anger?
Are we supposed to be happy with a government that spent us into seeming oblivion and left us essentially broke, while congress continued to give themselves raises and fly all over the country on tax payer funds?
Can those leftist identify a period in history where so much was crammed down the throat of the American people right out in the open, and not have people get angry?
Or congressional members that have been openly corrupt, and when caught, treated the American people like they were fools.
I could go on, and on, and on. But how could anybody on the left expect that all these things would be imposed on the American public, and American’s wouldn’t get mad about it?
Statements like even questioning the level of anger of the American People say that the left has absolutely no respect for them. It’s as foolish as stealing from the company you work for, then wondering why they want to fire you.
What the left is really mad about is that there are people on talk radio and TV that are pointing out the things that are being done. Those voices are supposed to be suppressed. That’s what they are really saying. Here’s the difference, the left cannot argue any points. They use radical methods to hide the emptiness of their ideas. On the other hand, those in the conservative movement rely on the rules to allow the validity of their arguments to emerge. The Tea Party or any other group that is focusing on traditional values doesn’t need to use guns, or violence to make a point. Because the truth is all that is needed.
As far as hate, here’s an example of what Glenn Beck talks about. Anyone that thinks Beck preaches hate doesn’t know what hate means. Beck is all about overcoming that kind of stuff.
And here is a clip from his show talking about how the left uses hate to motivate people.
The only ones talking about peaceful, and logical solutions are the members of the Conservative Movement.
It is terribly sad that Clarence Dupnik and Keith Obermann quickly seized the shooting tragedy in Arizona to attempt to erode the progress of the conservative movement.
Hey…………….guys, the kid was a screwball. One of his favorite books was the Communist Manifesto! That’s as far from the Tea Party movement as you get. Look at his Facebook page. He worked for “Children Protective Services, and wanted to be a woman someday.” Does that sound like a conservative leaning, tea partier?
Yet while the poor victims were still on the operating table, these two irresponsible people chose to seize the opportunity to take a shot at those who want to see the county return to traditional American values.
Here is the Sheriff in Tucson, Clarence Dupnik.
And here is Keith Obermannjumping quickly to capitalize on the progressive position well before the facts were in, hoping to erode away the effects of the recent conservative gains in popularity.
Who confuses who? Listen to this Socialist in Ohio spewing confusing rhetoric that is intended for young people.
And in tragedy those same leftists try to assign blame away from them, quickly, onto a faction of society that is trying to help young people like this kid desire to do something more important with their lives than trying to become a woman. Don’t let the facts get in the way of your opinion. I’ve been to a lot of Tea Party events and ALL of them are like this. CLICK HERE!
My wife and I were discussing over dinner the fact that in the times of Lincoln, Washington DC actually had liveries in town to tie up their slaves like horses. I thought about how far we’ve all come since then, and I thought about how instrumental Lincoln was in changing those opinions people had, on the “culture” of slavery. Lincoln was an uneducated white man, and he used the Constitutional rights of the great United States to put in front of people the fact that American society wanted slavery because they wanted to protect their pocket books. Lincoln wrote and spoke about that issue to a huge degree, and it made him very unpopular for a while, because it was affecting people’s comfort level. But history shows the result. Lincoln was openly hostile about slavery in his letters and over time he came to realize how terrible slavery was as an institution, and eventually, under his watch, slavery was abolished, and the United States has lead the way to religious and racial tolerance all over the world since then
But that’s not what you hear among our radical press that has an agenda for a political power grab. Civil rights, even though we all agree is the right thing to think about is big business, and power grabs for the party that rides the wave of emotion behind it.
Religion, like race relations is one of the longest forms of political power grabs known to mankind. Doc Thompson did a great bit of radio poking fun at Katie Couric’s suggestion of creating a television show based on the Muslim faith.
What a lot of people have a hard time understanding is how devious some political, and religious groups are in achieving their personal goals. We’ve studied how communism and other socialist principles have grown under our collective watchful, yet naive eyes. The same thing occurs under the umbrella of religious fervor.
A great example of this is the current Islamic possession of the Temple Mount while Jews resort to their practices at the Wailing Wall and the continuous tension that exists between those two religions at the Temple.
To a guy like me, I look at those religious icons and I see the artifacts of King Solomon’s Temple. It is a baffling concept that one particular religious entity or another would even consider “fighting” over rights to such things. But that is the state of our minds.
And that is why we can’t even joke about certain religious issues, such as the mosque in New York, because the debate is not one of life after death. It’s about control and power while here on earth. Our current debate on whether or not we should have a mosque in New York is really just a diversion to weaken an enemy, and to many in the world that crave power, the United States is an enemy to their goals.
It is difficult for many people to get their minds around devious concepts, even though many people unconsciously participate in devious behavior. So it is hard for people to see that there are still, in the 21st century, groups of people that want power, and they hide their desire for that power behind religion in order to unite the minds of their armies to help them achieve those goals. So I’m going to put this situation in a way that people can understand, because virtually everyone can relate.
Family is one of the most basic building blocks we all share with one another. Family problems are a great way to personalize some of these larger religious, and sensitivity issues, because we all have those problems. So let’s look at a hypothetical situation that occurs in many families and explore the hidden motives behind those actions so as to comprehend how religious leaders and civil rights advocates manipulate our emotions for the same basic end result.
Marriage is supposed to be a wonderful institution where typically a woman marries a man who is the son of someone. Usually, the mother of that man will look at the new woman as her “replacement” and because she has never in her mind made the correct breaking away from her son, still craves the love of her son over his wife. Now that new wife may actually like the brother of that husband, but that brother is already married to another woman. This “like” may not be sexually based, but just might be some deep seated psychological reaction because the brother is very similar to her husband, but benefits from having the traits the wife likes, but not the disadvantage that living with the husband has, so myths are allowed to form in the mind of the wife about the brother because she doesn’t live with him, and she sees the brother in a holier-than image.
Now this wife may actually be quite pretty, so the father who is married to the mother may be jealous of this son, the husband to the new wife. This might occur because the son is not his biological son, and is a bad memory of the man that came before him. Of course around the dinner table he is friendly, but his insecurities are great being the “second” man. Seeing his wife’s son marry a beautiful woman and having a fresh start in life with a fresh and unmolested “new” woman is enough to drive him to private madness, so he eats more, drinks more, and in general craves the attention of women half his age. The mother knowing that the husband feels this way deep down inside resents even more the new wife because she is a convenient target. This being her second marriage, she isn’t ready to admit to herself that her second husband is a creep. Because such a revelation may actually reveal to her extended family that she makes bad decisions, and the real problem may actually originate deep inside her and her desire to affiliate with bad people. So the mother befriends the brother’s wife to conspire against the new wife. Not openly mind you, but subtly.
Now our new husband and wife live well for a couple of years. The husband gets a few promotions and is making decent money which causes jealousy with his brother who hasn’t had such good luck. So he starts befriending the husband of his mother, who is just a step-father to him. And this step father uses this young man’s jealously to incite anger, and get the brother to do his bidding, so that his own wife doesn’t discover that he is trying to bring secret harm to her favorite son. A couple of kids are born to the son and his wife, and the wife has maintained her figure while the brother’s wife gets fat with boredom. The new wife dislikes the brother’s wife because she sees that the woman’s weight is embarrassing to the brother and she can see that the brother she likes so much isn’t enjoying sex because he has a fat wife, so she feels sorry for him and develops more anger at the brother’s wife.
The whole family has a get together to celebrate the 5th birthday of the oldest child of this marriage. The brother and his wife don’t really want to come, because they’ve been trying to have kids for a while, but can’t. The real reason they don’t have children yet is they don’t have sex enough because the brother isn’t interested in his own fat wife. The brother’s wife knows this, and resents her husband and her brother-in-law’s children more each time she sees them.
To make matters worse for the sister-in-law, and the mother, is the son’s wife has managed to find a way to stay home with her children so she has time to make a cake for her child’s birthday. The cake is a really fancy and personal cake that you couldn’t get in a bakery, because it’s actually made with love. Now you’d think the mother would be proud of her son for finding a wife that could and would make a cake for their child on their 5th birthday, but that’s not the case. Unfulfilled dreams and the mother’s own past mistakes of having her first marriage fail permeates her thoughts when she sees the cake, so in private she decides to instigate the brother’s fat wife into talking about what a prissy little bitch her son’s wife has become. Feeling empowered, the fat brother’s wife makes fun of the color of the cake right in front of the son’s wife, which breaks the heart of the wife who truly wants the appreciation of her mother-in-law. But what she sees in that moment of grief is great joy on the mothers face at the pain the son’s wife experienced at the antagonism of the brothers wife.
And the two women have a vicious argument right in the kitchen.
Meanwhile the son comes to break it up, and he insults his brother’s wife by calling her a spiteful, fat bitch! That gives his brother the opportunity to seize his anger that had been built up by his step-father, and now brother and brother fight it out right there in the kitchen.
The children are horrified to see all this going on. And the child that is turning 5 never forgets the images of everyone fighting, and makes the personal proclamation to never marry.
20 years later the elderly mother is asking her favorite son why he doesn’t come around more often, and that she misses him. The son doesn’t want to hurt his mother’s feelings and explain how destructive her beliefs have been to the family. His brother had long since divorced his fat wife. His mother lost her second husband to a chubby woman that was 21 who worked at the Waffle House. And he just didn’t have the heart to explain to his mother that her only grand children did not want to have children of their own, because they believe all families are dysfunctional.
The kids move out and the son and the wife live on alone, because the family had never really bonded. They tried over the years to go through the motions, but in the end, nobody really liked each other, so everyone found themselves alone and unhappy in the later years, meeting only in weddings and funerals.
Now what’s the point of that story? Well, the mother created the original sin by wanting power over her son. She didn’t want to face her own mistakes, and she desired to shape the lives of those around her to hide her own deficiencies from herself. The result of her divine leadership is she basically ruined the lives of everyone attached to her.
The same thing happens politically for much the same reasons. Our inability to see through the intentions of our enemies or to even name an enemy to our nation often allows corruption to migrate and fester over a long period of time into something that could ruin our lives. And it happens because we won’t even allow ourselves to be critical of something.
The resistance to slavery was because so many people made money off slavery. Lincoln did the good work of making people look at themselves, and that’s where slavery ended, in people’s hearts. It wasn’t just legislated. It changed inside people and it happened in America by a Republican.
Religion is supposed to be a personal thing, so you always have to be cautious when a religious group desires to “impose” itself on society. Because when they do, they are looking for power not spiritual understanding. And when they get caught doing so, they deserve to be ridiculed for the potential corruption they could bring to our society.
Call it what it is, so you can avoid a lifetime of pain.
Many people forget that during the summer of 2008 fuel costs were up over $4 per gallon. What happened was all the money that Americans normally spent on McDonalds, Walmart, and other consumer outlets, suddenly went to the excessive fuel costs and a long way to creating the recession we are currently in. Americans were using their expendable income on fuel costs, not on other items in the economy.
And here we go again. Doc Thompson has on a guest that discusses this very issue.
It is unacceptable to have fuel costs higher than what they are now. If fuel costs go up, it is entirely due to the ineptness of our political structures. Americans should not be “nudged” into other forms of energy while our economic competitors fuel their economic engines with unregulated drilling. In America we have regulated ourselves into a poor strategic position.
It is not my fault that our politicians screwed up and stood with weak backs to environmentalists that are in actuality communists at heart and crave an end to American Imperialism by crushing their great independent “car culture.” I will not spend the extra money on fuel. Instead, I will spend less. I will ride my motorcycle when I’d normally take a car. I’ll ride a bicycle or even walk before I use my extra money on a tank of fuel.
America would be wise to only use the fuel it needs, and respond to these price increases by hurting the revenue of all the government hands that have their hands in the cookie jar that is fuel industry. If you want to punch back the government that screwed all this up to begin with, hurt the money they take in with each gallon of gas that you buy. Below is some information on how much we pay in taxes by state for each gallon of gas.
State
Gasoline
Diesel
Additional Sales Tax
Comment
(¢/g)
(¢/g)
(%)
Alabama
18
19
4
The gasoline gasohol and diesel rates include a 2 cents per gallon inspection fee. Alabama-registered LPG vehicles pay an annual fee based on vehicle type in lieu of the volume tax.
Alaska
8
8
0
Arizona
18
19
5
The fuel tax on diesel remains at 18 cents per gallon for light and exempt vehicles but is set at 27 cents per gallon if used to propel a truck with more than two axles or with a declared gross weight over 26 000 pounds.
Arkansas
21.5
22.5
4.5
The gasoline gasohol and diesel rates include 0.4 cents per gallon Environmental Assurance Fee. Applicants for LPG user permits must pay a fee in lieu of the volume tax.
California
18
18
6
LPG users may pay an annual fee in lieu of the volume tax.
Colorado
22
20.5
3
Owners of LPG vehicles registered in the State must pay an annual fee in lieu of the volume tax.
Connecticut
25
45.1
5
The tax is computed at 5% of the gross earnings from the first sale of a petroleum product in the State.
Delaware
23
22
0
The tax rate varies annually based on the average wholesale price of gasoline for the previous year.
Dist. of Columbia
23.5
20
5.8
Florida
16
16
0
Tax rates are variable, adjusted annually. For gasoline and gasohol, in addition to the rates shown, there is a State-imposed State Comprehensive Enhanced Transportation System (SCETS) tax that varies by the county from 0-5.0 cents per gallon. All counties levy the SCETS tax on gasoline, but a few levy less than the maximum rate. LPG vehicles registered in the State pay an annual fee in lieu of the tax on alternative fuels and the SCETS tax.
Georgia
7.5
7.5
4
Hawaii
17
17
4
Effective 01/01/02, alternative fuels pay an amount proportional to the diesel tax as follows: .29 for ethanol, .5 for bio-diesel, and .33 for LPG. An additional 1 cent is added to these amounts, and then rounded to the nearest 1 cent.
Idaho
25
25
5
LPG users may pay an annual fee based on vehicle weight in lieu of volume tax.
Illinois
19
21.5
Motor carriers pay an additional 6.3 cents per gallon on gasoline, 6.5 cents on diesel, and 5.9 cents on LPG.
Indiana
18
16
5
Motor carriers pay an additional 11 cents per gallon. LPG vehicles pay an annual fee.
Iowa
21
22.5
5
Effective 07/01/02, motor fuel tax rates will be adjusted annually based on the amounts of ethanol blended gasoline being sold and distributed annually.
Kansas
24
26
4.9
LPG users may pay an annual fee based on mileage and gross vehicle weight in lieu of the volume tax.
Kentucky
24.1
21.1
6
Tax rates are variable, adjusted quarterly. A 2 percent surtax is imposed on gasoline and 4.7 percent on special fuels for any vehicle with 3 or more axles. The gasoline, gasohol, and diesel rates include 1.4 cents per gallon Petroleum Environmental Assurance Fee.
Louisiana
20
20
0
Maine
29.5
30.7
0
Rates are variable, adjusted every February based on past years Consumer Price Index. Rates are effective on the following July 1.
Maryland
23.5
24.25
5
Massachusetts
21
21
5
Michigan
19
15
6
For vehicles defined under the Motor Carrier Fuel Tax Act, diesel fuel is discounted 6 cents per gallon at the pump; and assessed a 12 cents per gallon surcharge on a quarterly return, with a provision for a 6 cent per gallon refund on fuel purchased in Michigan.
Minnesota
27.1
27.1
6
There is a credit to the wholesaler of 15 cents per gallon of alcohol used to make gasohol.
Mississippi
18.4
18.4
The gasoline, gasohol, and diesel rates include 0.4 cents per gallon dedicated to the Groundwater Protection Trust Fund.
Missouri
17
17
0
LPG vehicles 18,000 pounds or less gross vehicle weight registered in the State pay an annual fee in lieu of the volume tax.
Montana
27.75
27.75
0
LPG vehicles registed in the State pay an annual fee based on gross weight in lieu of the volume tax. Out-of-State vehicles purchase trip permits. There is an alcohol distiller credit of 30 cents per gallon of alcohol produced in the State with State agricultural products and used to make gasohol.
Nebraska
26.8
26.8
5
Rates are variable, adjusted quarterly. The gasoline and gasohol include 0.6 cents per gallon and diesel rate includes 0.2 cents per gallon Petroleum Release Remedial Action Fee. Effective 01/01/02, new Nebraska ethanol production facilities may receive an ethanol production credit equal to 18 cents per gallon of ethanol used to fuel motor vehicles.
Nevada
24
27
0
New Hampshire
18
18
0
The gasoline, gasohol, and diesel rates include 1.5 cents per gallon Oil Discharge and Disposal Cleanup Fee. Alternative fuel vehicles pay twice the usual registration fee in lieu of the volume tax.
New Jersey
10.5
13.5
0
In addition to the rates shown, there is a Petroleum Products Gross Receipts Tax. The tax is computed on a cents-per-gallon basis and is applicable to a wide variety of petroleum products.
New Mexico
18.875
22.875
5
The gasoline, gasohol, and diesel rates include the Petroleum Products Loading Fee of $150 per 8,000 gallons (1.875 cents per gallon). Owners of LPG-powered vehicles up to 54,000 pounds gross vehicle weight may pay an annual fee in lieu of the volume tax.
New York
24.35
22.55
4
Rates are variable, adjusted annually. Rates include the Petroleum Business Tax of 14.6 cents per gallon. The gasoline rate includes a 0.5 mill (0.05 cents) per gallon Petroleum Testing Fee.
North Carolina
30.55
30.55
0
Rates are variable, adjusted semiannually.
North Dakota
22
22
5
Rates are variable, adjusted semiannually.
Ohio
28
28
5
Commercial vehicles formerly subject to the highway use tax pay an additional 3 cents per gallon. Dealers are refunded 10 cents per gallon of each qualified fuel (ethanol or methanol) blended with unleaded gasoline.
Oklahoma
17
14
4.5
Rates shown include 1 cent per gallon tax dedicated to the Petroleum Underground Tank Release Environmental Cleanup Indemnity Fund. When the Fund reaches specified balance, future tax revenues will be deposited in a highway fund. The gasoline, gasohol, and LPG rates include 0.08 cents for fuel inspection. LPG users may pay an annual fee in lieu of the volume tax.
Oregon
24
24
0
The diesel and LPG rates shown are paid by users for vehicles not under the jurisdiction of Public Utility Commissioner. Vehicles under the jurisdiction of the Public Utilities Commissioner and paying motor-carrier fees are exempt from payment of the motor-fuel tax.
Pennsylvania
31.2
38.1
6
The rates include the Oil Franchise Tax for Maintenance and Construction, a variable rate tax adjusted annually. LPG rate is based on the gasolie gallon equivalent.
Rhode Island
33
33
Rates includes 1 cent per gallon tax for the Underground Storage Tank Financial Responsibility Fund.
South Carolina
16
16
5
South Dakota
22
22
4
As of 7/1/2009, South Dakota taxes gasoline at 22 cents and ethyl alcohol at 8 cents.
Tennessee
20
17
6
LPG users without permits must pay in advance at the beginning of the fiscal year, others pay quarterly. Fee is based on vehice weight and fuel efficiency.
Texas
20
20
6.3
Owners of LPG vehicles registered in the State must pay an annual fee in lieu of the volume tax.
Utah
24.5
24.5
4.9
LPG is tax exempt if user purchases annual exemption certificate.
Vermont
20
29
0
Diesel vehicles 10,000 pounds and over pay 26 cents per gallon. LPG vehicles are subject to a registration fee 1.75 times the usual fee. The gasoline, gasohol, and diesel rates include 1 cents per gallon for the Petroleum Cleanup Fund.
Virginia
17.5
17.5
0
Vehicles weighing 26,000 pounds or more having 3 or more axles pay an additional 3.5 cents per gallon.
Washington
37.5
37.5
6.5
Owners of LPG vehicles pay an annual fee.
West Virginia
32.2
32.2
0
Rates are variable, adjusted annually.
Wisconsin
30.9
30.9
5
Rates are variable, adjusted annually.
Wyoming
14
14
4
LPG is subject to sales tax. The gasoline, gasohol, and diesel rates include 1 cent for the Underground Storage Tank Corrective Action Account.
There is no reason for gas to go over $3 a gallon. If you put up with it, it’s your own fault. Our economy has not yet recovered from the last recession. The arrogance of politicians who believe Americans have enough expendable income to ride the fuel price hikes are at best out of touch. And the best way to hurt a politician is to take away the money they rely on. So lower your consumption and therefore the revenue politicians collect at the gas pumps.
You can dig into more of this story at The Blaze.com.
But here’s the core of the issue, these are children. They don’t know anything about the world yet. These kids are too young and naive to understand that they are being used by the real corruption of large institutions, and leftist mentalities to do their dirty work. There aren’t any guarantees that college will even give a young person a chance at success. Mass college participation is a fairly new idea. The world hasn’t seen the results yet. So far the results aren’t very promising. It’s usually schools that are involved in radical behavior. That’s how it was in the United States during the 60’s, and that’s where this radical behavior in London is coming from.
That leaves the question as to whether or not society should even endorse the current form of higher education, if all it can produce are radicals like these students, who don’t have basic understanding of economics, and young people with extremely high social expectations.
Again, the belief from all these people is that money just grows on trees. What good is protesting if the money isn’t there? It’s not the government’s responsibility to provide an education!!!!!!!
It is up to you! If you can’t afford it, work and earn it! Don’t be a bunch of spoiled brats looking for a hand out. And don’t be a pawn to socialist professors that are looking to use student protests to protect their very LUCRITIVE wages.
The streetcar slated to be built-in Cincinnati is receiving a $35 million dollar grant from the federal government. The reason this is a problem is because once you take the money, you are obligated to fulfill the requirements of taking that money, much like the issue regarding the high-speed rail where the Federal government dangled $400 million in grants at Ohio to commit us to build the rail system. It is important for Ohio, and for Cincinnati not to take federal money when it can avoid it.
Why?
Because there is a small item in the Constitution called the 10th Amendment. When a city or state takes federal money, it is expanding the growth of government at the federal level in exchange for the small return on the investment. In the case of these streetcars and trains, who is really going to use them? I won’t. And nobody I know will. I’d use a car or a motorcycle to get where I want to go. If I lived downtown, I’d ride a bicycle. I would never ride a streetcar. Relatively speaking, it is a very small percent of the population that will ride these transportation devices.
But……when the money is taken, suddenly the federal government has a right to dictate mandates. This is how congress has exercised many power grabs over the last century. So when you ask the question how we arrived at this point in time, where the government is out of control and growing rapidly, and local politicians look at us glass-eyed like zombies and proceed against our best interest, it’s because they sold our rights away for the prospect of free money.
I put together this video to explain the process. Watch it here:
When the federal government does this, it’s no different from when a credit card company sends you a new credit card offer. Politicians are always looking for something to attach their names to so their legacies will live on in history, and free money helps them build such monuments to themselves. And they sell us all out in the process, and leave us obligated to a giant centralized government for years there-after.
All in the name of power.
The trains have nothing to do with convenience, and everything to do with reducing the effectiveness of the 10th Amendment. Just be sure you understand that as the news proceeds forward from a mayor that has been to China twice in 6 months during 2010, and a former governor that has been in the hip pocket of President Obama, who is in the hip pocket of powerful unions, SEIU to be specific.
The State of Ohio needs to get in the habit of living off its own revenue. Once that happens, we can tell congress where to put their power grabs, and we will be free to regulate our own interests locally, the way the Constitution of the United States intended it.
Why call it a waltz, those patrons in our society that use emotion to justify the use of public money for their private needs? Because when the hard facts are put on the table, the emo’s dance around the issues, call names and attempt to side step the primary issues.
There was a wonderful disagreement on the Big One between Doc Thompson and Paul Daugherty of the Cincinnati Enquire over public education dollars being spent on special needs children.
Listen here:
This initial argument reminded me so closely to the disagreements taking place in virtually every school system across Ohio. For me, in the Lakota district when I put myself in the line of fire against the recent proposed school levy, it was stunning how similar the reaction people had towards me. The impulsive reaction of the otherwise cerebral Paul Daugherty and his literal intellectual attack on Doc Thompson, stating, “you could not write my article,” and “do you want to be quiet while I educate you or not,” speaks of the mentality behind such statements.
Doc Thompson is understandably ruffling the feathers of established thinking and that is a very good and healthy thing. His position on this particular issue is one of questioning the validity of the costs in public education that are proving unsustainable. The comments Doc is making are the first honest examination of an avalanche which is about to fall upon us in programs created by government in recent history, that were well-intentioned, and are now accepted by the population in general, such as Paul Daugherty, and believe are “rights.”
When Paul attacked Doc, the motive was clearly one of intimidation, which is a normal strategy from parents that have become dependent on the services schools have been offering. Special needs children certainly bring about that reaction, but so do the children that want to participate in sports, or band. The standard defense reaction from people wanting those services from public money is to attack anyone that even brings up the question. In this case Paul came on the air, basically told Doc he was “wrong,” and that Doc lacked the intellect to write a column for the Enquire and that he needed to be educated. The unspoken desire is to impress upon Doc that if he speaks about something that is sensitive then maybe he’ll shut up next time and not ask the question.
I went through the same process during the Lakota Levy. “You couldn’t teach a class of students.” “If you have all the answers, why don’t you run for the school board,” were just a few of the comments. Anyone close to the story will note that during the Lakota Campaign, angry parents and teachers actually threatened WLW with very similar inflammatory comments because I had went on the air and revealed the real budget buster, that the wages of the top 30% exceeded 65K a year, and that was the reason the district didn’t have proper funding.
In 1990 a well-intentioned Congress passed the ADA act which is described below. The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990[1][2] (ADA) is a law that was enacted by the U.S. Congress in 1990. It was signed into law on July 26, 1990, by President George H. W. Bush, and later amended with changes effective January 1, 2009.[3]
The ADA is a wide-ranging civil rights law that prohibits, under certain circumstances, discrimination based on disability. It affords similar protections against discrimination to Americans with disabilities as the Civil Rights Act of 1964,[4] which made discrimination based on race, religion, sex, national origin, and other characteristics illegal. Disability is defined by the ADA as “a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits a major life activity.”
Quote by George Bush, “I know there may have been concerns that the ADA may be too vague or too costly, or may lead endlessly to litigation. But I want to reassure you right now that my administration and the United States Congress have carefully crafted this Act. We’ve all been determined to ensure that it gives flexibility, particularly in terms of the timetable of implementation; and we’ve been committed to containing the costs that may be incurred…. Let the shameful wall of exclusion finally come tumbling down.”
People now have forgotten what life was like before the ADA was enacted. And because it’s such an emotional issue, taken individually, the feel good stories are used to sell it. But now in hindsight, can we not say that the ADA has had a devastating effect on our expanding economy. Our competing nations don’t regulate themselves in such a way. People also assume that the Department of Education has always been in place, when in reality it’s only been implemented since 1979. Has the Department of Education made our students more successful? Or has the Department of Education only increased the cost of education? Is legislation like the ADA the government’s solution to fairness, if the cost is at the expense of our nation? And in sports, how did we arrive at a place where sports are considered an entitlement? Should public schools offer sports so children can have a crack at a scholarship? Is that the requirement of public education, so resident parents have the opportunity to have their children pursue a scholarship to higher education? Or preparing a child for college with electives offered by the district, is it the public’s responsibility to help a child accomplish their college goals once they’ve graduated? Who benefits, the community, or the parents of the community that save the extra education costs because pubic education assisted the cost of post-graduate prep? These are the emotional issues that instigate the type of character assassinations that are eerily similar to the exchange between Doc Thompson and Paul Daugherty.
Traditionally, it was churches, friends and family that cared for members of society that couldn’t care for themselves. When government injected itself into the situation, they have created a culture of entitlement, which we can not afford, and now the remnants of good intentions are crippling the very foundations that our society is built upon.
The only way to understand those foundations is to strip away all the things built upon it, and re-examine the condition. Again, I’d have to point out in the case of special needs issues; the total cost is but a fraction of staff wages that are excessively high across the entire school system payrolls. In Cincinnati the average per family income is $58,000 per home. At Lakota, it’s $62,000 per teacher. That is the bulk of cost, and no union member has yet to step forward and suggest restructuring their contracts. Instead, for weeks the Cincinnati Public School system negotiated with their teachers union over the cost of health care. So dealing with wages is a long way off. And the reason nobody asks the hard questions are because of what Doc went through on WLW on December 9, 2010 when a fellow member of the media took him to task on the air in an attempt to silence him.
And that is a waltz few sane individuals want to dance to. But let’s all be thankful that Doc can dance with the best of them.
Below is a letter from Ted Strickland pleading for John Kasich to reconsider stopping the passenger Train of Doom idea that has been in the works for a number of years, and is a progressive project embraced by that philosophy. There is more to the letter than just words. What Strickland and progressives in Ohio are doing is setting the stage of creating doubt as Kasich works on the 2011 budget.
Sure enough, Progress Ohio is a progressive group dedicated to progressive ideas; another aspect to our government that I hadn’t known was a major legislative influence working diligently within the State of Ohio toward goals the electorate is not aware of.
When considering how to simplify and reduce the size of government, or to reform education, groups like Progress Ohio place themselves as a barrier to that goal.
So it is with no surprise that Progress Ohio was one of the first to publish the letter from current Governor Strickland to Governor-Elect Kasich written on December 7, 2010 about all the reasons in the world why the 3C&D passenger rail service should not be cancelled. The letter was hand delivered to Kasich, but was posted in digital form on the Progress Ohio website within hours. That is how the game board is set up.
You can read that letter here before my comments below.
The trouble with these progressive groups and politicians, just like the trouble with organized labor, is that they are eternally focused on what was, and their measuring sticks are in the past. They need conflicts like racism, and the traditional labor strikes to advance their position.
The passenger rail is one of those items, built by a long string of progressive minded politicians, and yes, Bob Taft, a republican is one of them, passenger rail is part of a dying culture. The world is growing away from regional things like rails, and even highways and buildings, and moving toward more electronic, home based applications. Yet Progressives have entrenched themselves around such concepts and they stand firmly in the way of true progress which can only be explored in innovation and much, much smaller government.
Virtually everything mentioned in the letter from Strickland is an echo from the past where the true intentions are control and restriction, not options.
Ohio’s youth won’t stay in Ohio because there is a train. They’ll stay here if there are jobs, if there are opportunities, and if they can have a good quality of life. None of those things government can provide truly. Only private industry and individual innovation will solve our problems.
Such letters as the former governor sent only serve to cloud the issue with contrived facts and distorted opinion rooted in a lack of intellect.
I hope Kasich does for Ohio what Chris Christie has done for New Jersey.
Letters like this dribble from Mr. Strickland show what is wrong, and Progress Ohio is the foundation people like Strickland stand on. And Progress Ohio is what is standing in the way of real progress by holding on to the past.
Forget about trains!
Remember, Strickland was governor when Glenn Beck covered this issue on his radio show last summer.
Getting things under control will be painful, but if we do it now, we can fix it. If we wait too long, the damage will be too great.
The Overmanwarrior 