VOTING: In response to my musing ...
>> One thing I've been wondering, thinking back on >> that whole American Revolution thing... >> >> If non-citizens can't vote, should they have to >> pay taxes? What about people under 18, and people >> who've had their civil rights stripped? Michael Atherton brought up the obvious (but important) point: > Non-citizens who reside in this country use many of > its services: roads, weather reporting, police > protection, fire fighting, etc. I think it's > entirely reasonable that they should pay taxes, it > is their choice to live here. It would be > unreasonable to expect the internees in Cuba to > pay for their incarceration. Yep, I agree that there are many services that people who can't vote are advantaged by and it is reasonable to expect them to pay for it. So there are two sides to "No taxation without representation" I'm just brainstorming at this point, but how about giving non citizens representation? Perhaps we should have an additional city council member to represent non-citizens. This person would not necessarily have the ability to vote or input on ALL issues, but if non-citizens are paying taxes to support infrastructure and services, then shouldn't they have at least a small voice in how those taxes are spent? It sounds kind of out there, but it is in line with our basic principles. The main difficulty would be defining which things that representative would get to vote on and which things they did not. Or how about our citizens that don't get to vote? Shouldn't youth get an input on things that directly influence them? How about a youth seat on the school board? I'm not talking about handing the control of the schools to them, just one vote and the opportunity to be directly involved. Aren't our parks heavily utilized by youth? Maybe they should get a park board seat as well. There are a lot of details to be considered in these things, but it's plausible to think that giving youth a voice and a vote would encourage them to have more social involvement, interest, and responsibility. Regarding former felons who've lost their civil rights, another list member mentioned to me that they do have the right to reclaim them after a period of time, but this is not generally communicated to them. It seems reasonable to imagine that a good way to remind people of their civic responsibility is to remind them of their civic rights and get them back into the process. HOUSING: Vicky Heller brought up a number of the facts regarding affordable housing. She gave a portion of the figures regarding what 60% AMI affordable housing limits were. I recall an earlier post that showed the full chart. I admit that it does seem like a lot of money going into not a lot of affordable housing. I think a question that needs to be asked is if the AMI limits in this development are 60%. I attended a city council meeting a while back discussing another development applying for various affordable housing funding and their housing was XX at 50% AMI and XX at 30% AMI. For a meaningful look at this development, I think we need to know how many of the units are at what levels of "affordable" and then look at the rents and incomes involved at those levels. However, regardless, this brings up something else I've been meaning to ask. I own a duplex and rent out the lower half. I made the choice to rent the unit at a lower price to help out some folks who were good people but don't make a lot of money. This gives them a comfortable place to live in the cities that they can afford and it gives me some reliable tenants who I don't have to worry about. It also makes me feel good. I'm pretty sure their incomes fit into "affordable housing" qualifications, although how would I find out? If they do, can I make my property an affordable housing property and get funding to subsidize it? What sort of funding is available if I guarantee that my rental unit will be affordable. How long do I need to make that guarantee for? What would my tennants have to do to make it all legal? I currently charge $650 for a 2 BR 1000 sq. ft. unit (yeah, right, but that's what the paperwork says) and pay all utilities except electricity (gas heat). I'm pretty sure that's under the limits to qualify at an affordable rate. I wasn't quite sure which figures were repayable and which weren't, so I'm just going to go with the number of $144,344 per unit that Vicky came up with. This is partially tongue and cheek, but... My house is older (but I like it), so I'll cut a deal. If someone pays me $120,000 I designate my rental as an "affordable unit". I'd have to look over the specific details and responsibilities before signing the deal, but at this point, I'd say it's a go. Am I misinterpreting this? That is not a rhetorical question - if I am not seeing things quite right, I'd appreciate someone pointing it out as I'm relatively new to both being a landlord and affordable housing concepts. Seriously, if Vicky's numbers are right, I think a number of people like me would be willing to designate their rental unit as being an affordable property in exchange for some cash to help pay off the mortgage or get repairs or improvements done. In any case, I am interested in finding out more about converting my spare unit into affordable housing. MULTI LINGUAL FARECARDS: The main challenge I see here is that the languages that are most appropriate today may not be in two or three years. Spanish is likely to always be one because it is such a dominent language on this continent, but other primary languages will change as we get new waves of immigrants and refugees from other areas. It also doesn't meet the needs of people of other primary languages who are already here. Hmong, Somali, Spanish, etc. Brainstorming ... What if instead of having a limited number of additional languages planned into the cards and machines, we made pamphlets available at all the stations that were in every language needed and basically pointed out the various parts of the card or machinery and translated them. Since the areas translated don't really change, they would be fairly quickly memorized or recognized by people using them and it might help people learn english. It would allow us to make the service accessible to any languages necessary and keep the cards and machinery more streamlined. If there is anyone on the list for whom english was not their first language, I would be very interested in hearing from them. It is not my intention to make services less convenient for anyone - I'm just curious as to what the most effective solution in terms of cost and flexibility would be. Again, that was just brainstorming. I do that a lot. LIBRARY DIRECTOR/ADMINISTRATORS: I should point out that my reaction regarding $120k salary was more general class frustration than anything else. I'm technically a middle class yuppie, but I'm not very rooted in my class. I'm actually an anomily because my family is either wealthy or poor depending on whether depending on whether they went Republican or Democrat. I guess being a small "i" independent changed the rules, although my dad blames it on the fact that I'm part German. I have no problem with an Administrator making $120k. I do have a problem with so many other people making as little as they do. When I look at civil service jobs, they typically seem to be some of the lower salaries which is why seeing one paying so high struck me as odd. Yes, obviously an superintendent needs more skills than a teacher. Many of them ARE teachers and then developed adminstrative skills (I'd bet most of the good ones fall into that category). The question is, how much discretionary income does a teacher get compared to how much a superintendent gets. They are both skilled and educated jobs and I'd hazard a guess that a good teacher and a good superintendent work as hard as each other. I don't have numbers in front of me, so I'll make something up: I'd guess a teacher making $25,000 to have a discretionary income of about $200 a month (and a pretty basic living arrangement - house, car/bus, etc.). I base that on one of my friend's situations. I'd guess an administrator who makes $100,000 to have a significantly better lifestyle which would have higher fixed costs (bigger mortgage, fancy car, more wardrobe needs, etc.), but even after those fixed costs, I'd guess $3k/month discretionary income. This level makes investing in market or business or rental is much more viable which can make that difference even larger. I base that on the fact that when I was making ~$60k, I easily had $1k/month extra. Yes, those are guesses, but they are semi-educated ones. If anyone really cared, I could make more accurate calculations. Does the difference in skill/experience really justify a discretionary income that is that much greater? (as well as the higher class lifestyle) Like I said, I don't have a problem paying an Administrator that much. What I have a problem with is paying them that much and other hard working people so little. - Jason Goray, Sheridan, NE __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? 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