Utah (R) State Senator wants to block tax break for deployed NG troops
Senate Majority Leader Scott Jenkins rants against all of the benefits that National Guard soldiers from Utah get from their service during and after their deployments in this video;
The issue is over whether Utah will absorb deployed troops’ property taxes while they’re deployed to a combat zone.
Legislators voiced support Tuesday for waiving property taxes on the homes of military members while they are deployed to combat zones, but said legislation aiming to do that needs more work.
Jenkins rant is little disturbing in the regard that he seems to be a little envious of the military for everything they “get” and he completely disregards what they’re willing to pay for the State of Utah and the country, that being their very lives. In fact, I find Jenkins a bit childish because he doesn’t get the same tax breaks and aid that those who actually serve the country get. And, oh, yeah that retirement after 20 years is so grand that most of us have to work after we retire.
I’ll bet he’d be singing a different tune if they were talking about a tax break for State legislators.
Thanks to ROS for the links.
Category: Shitbags
So apparently being able to shop in the px is a fair trade off for the possibility of getting your ass blown up and shot up. I should have cherished those 4 dollar packs of cigarettes when I had the chance.
Also what percentage of the total population of Utah belongs to the national guard? On top of that how many soldiers would actually be deploying? (these questions are rhetorical…opsec…lol) In the article you linked it said it would raise other citizens property taxes by 16 cents. I’m sorry Scott Jenkins but if you can’t pay 16 cents so these guys can forget about their property taxes for a year you are a POS. And whats more disgusting is this guy is a veteran. He must have had a bad 7 years if he would begrudge 16 cents to the noble servicemen and women who put themselves in harms way for his old Ebenezer ass.
Sounds like someone really dislikes the idea of being reelected.
Sounds like the asshole is just upset because he didn’t get any extra benifits when he was in the Guard- (guessing from his age, he went in to avoid the draft?) As far as the benifits Guard troops get in Calif- there ain’t much besides what the feds give. The PX aint that great and in my area, I’d have to drive over 50 miles to use a PX or commissary. The “retirement” after 20 years doesn’t go into effect until age 60-
but he’s right, we did volunteer and if I got to see this guy in person, I’d just tell him to kiss my ass.
You know, nothing surprises me anymore. I hope Scottie is unemployed next year.
When NG troops are deployed, they fall under Title 10. At that point, the State has absolutely no say in the matter. The End.
Seriously, he’d get all butthurt because someone didn’t pay property taxes for a year?
Memo to the good Senator–most of these guys when they deploy are taking one hell of a pay cut to serve our country. I know if I were still in, even if I were an E-7 or E-8 by now, I’d be losing nearly half, so to say that AD and NG folks “get so much” is only half true in that they get so much shit for so little in return.
Oh, and you’re a douchebag, Senator.
Willing to bet State Senator Jenkins is being primaried by Utah’s very successful TEA Party, and is losing.
There are other ways of raising the cash, which is negligible – not even enough to fund a single school for a year – than forcing deployed citizens to pay property taxes.
Memo to Utah Vet–Can you give us an idea on what a typical house pays in property taxes in a given year?
Wait a sec, according to http://www.taxfoundation.org/research/topic/61.html
Utah Property Taxes among Nation’s Lowest
Utah’s local governments collected $738.21 per capita in property taxes during fiscal year 2006, which is the latest year the Census Bureau published state-by-state property tax collections. Utah is one of the 13 states that collect no state-level property taxes. Its per capita property tax collections in FY2006 ranked 40th nationally.
If I am reading this right, then the state loses nothing. Only the local municipalities lose out. Someone who understands taxes better, please chime in.
Never did any time as NG but hey those guys have my respect for giving up so much for so little in return. In 2003 our Infantry support came from the Florida NG. These dudes had given up jobs making 6 figures to deploy for 30kish a year.
Seriously if Utah cant afford to absorb the amount of property taxes these guys would have for one year maybe there is a bigger problem going on over there.
And Im with you NHSparky, the senator is a douche bag.
Okay, so let’s assume $1500 per affected household. No way the state has more than 1000 residents deployed in the ‘Stan at any time, probably a whole hell of a lot less.
So yeah, this is picking fly shit out of the pepper.
ETA: Google be my fwend…
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705331760/Utah-property-tax-burden-creeps-up.html
The median house in Utah costs $236,000, with an annual tax bill of $1,338.
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/700140927/474-southern-Utah-National-Guard-members-leaving-for-Iraq.html?s_cid=s10
The departure of the Triple Deuce will bring the number of Utah National Guard soldiers currently deployed to about 1,000. Other units currently deployed include the 141st Military Intelligence Battalion and 151st Security Forces Squadron, both in Iraq; and the 118th Sapper Company, which is in Afghanistan.
So we’re roughly $1.5 million. In a state with an annual budget of $5 BILLION.
In the words of Eddie Murphy, “You cheap motherfuckas…”
Jonn, you’re ripping a R? And, and the others on here too? Drunkard Dave told me this was a partisan hack website, I’m so confuzzled.
Retirement? Seriously? Serve for 20 years in the guard, get out at 38 or so, you can collect your whole whopping $600 a month or so for the enlisted folk, when you turn 60.
So you’ve got maybe a decade to collect it, if you do at all. If anyone in the guard is in it for a retirement, they are crazy or they are AGR.
This guy is out of touch with a lot.
Ahhh. Now they moved their sites from teachers, fire fighters, police officers, municipal and state employees to National Guard members. They’ll be the new job-squatting, lazy, overpaid, over-benefitted leeches on society. They’ll see how it feels. No one who is paid more than a McDonalds fry cook is safe from these people.
Joe, go suck the tailpipe of a running VW microbus.
Hey Joe,
Here are some more numbers for you – from http://certificationmap.com/states/utah-teacher-certification/
Incentives to teach in high-needs schools or shortage subject areas: Utah provides differential pay support for teachers teaching in shortage subject areas
Average Elementary Teacher Salary: The average elementary school teacher in Utah makes $46,270
Average Secondary Teacher Salary: The average secondary teacher in Utah makes $45,560
Teacher Salary vs. State Average Salary: The average teacher in Utah makes 109% of the salary of the average worker in Utah
Number of Vacation Weeks Per Year: The average teacher in Utah receives 15 weeks of vacation per year
In case you didn’t know, enlisted soldiers in combat zones pay no federal income tax for the months spent in the zone. Officers pay income tax on their income above an E9’s. Essentially, there is a president for soldiers in a combat zone getting tax breaks. When I deployed as an ARNG soldier, my state paid my SGLI for the months that I was in theater.
I can sing the same tales of woe that most other have here (crappy RC retirement based on points, pay differential between my civilian job and my Army job, etc.) but I won’t bother. I don’t think that giving about 500 guys a break on property tax (I’ll assume that half of the guys deployed either live in rental properties where the landlord isn’t going to get a tax break or are with mom and dad or some other family member) is going to be a major hit to the state and will pay dividends in recruitment later.
Bobo,
I don’t know if I made myself clear – I am FOR the Nat’l. Guard guys. I’m am for all of the workers I mentioned above. It’s these budget-cutting, austeriy-crazed free market fundamentalists in corporations’ pockets I hate. I guess you could paraphrase the old saying – they slashed benefits for the teachers and I said nothing. They slashed benefits for the firefighters and I said nothing. They slashed benefits for the Nat’l Guardsmen and women, and I said nothing.. You get my point.
And oh yeah, teachers deserve summers off – Ttere is no time out with kids, you have to be “on” every minute of every day. The job would drive them stark, raving mad if they didn’t get to recharge.
Sorry guys, I agree with the Senator. When you buy a house, you assume some responsibility. That property tax goes to pay for the schools, the infrastructure, plowing the roads, maintaining common areas, etc. Just because youre overseas, doesnt mean that there isnt still bills that the townships have to cover.
It is a volunteer military. If I volunteer to go, and my wife and children are still living in my house and using the roads, and flushing the toilets, well I think they have to pay into the upkeep.
This isnt something that was promised to us and then this guy is trying to take it away, this is another perk they’re trying to push and maybe enough is enough.
QUICK!! Somebody call an ambulance!! Joe agreed with us on something!! 🙂
Joey, are you a lobbyist for the NEA? That’s all you do most of the time, whine about teachers.
VTWoody,
For most reservists and Guardsmen (and women), the tax break came about due to a significant drop in pay. If the family goes under, so does the deployed soldier, and with some extreme, long term consequences such as loss of security clearance, promotion, and so on.
For other reservists and Guardsment (and women), active duty pay is a payraise. By all means tax the single-wide and truck. That should bring in a $1.35 each.
I understand your point, but too many non-Active Duty troops have been down the road of being punished by their governments for serving our great Nation.
DaveO, families are losing their jobs, homes, wellbeing, etc every day. In this day and age, when deployments have been going on for 10 years and enlistments are 6, if you cant afford to deploy without harming your family, maybe thats a decision you have to make for yourself.
I’m all for supporting the troops and taking care of our own, but there’s also paying for what you say you will pay. Thats where the property tax comes into play, in that the bills that money is used for are still there. What if a whole neighborhood was NG guys who got shipped out? I know thats an extreme, but it makes the point easier to make.
VTWoody – No.
If you feel bad about it, send Utah a check. They obviously need the money, they’re facing total budgetary collapse from the lack of cash.
The flip side of Utah removing this recruiting tool: fewer Guardsmen. That should square away the state.
VDWoody, if not these dedicated men and women. then who? Are you going to re-up? How about your kids? Maybe your grandkids? Nieces? Nephews? You want to send an FNG family member to the sand box who may come back in a box or would you rather pay an extra dollar? I’ll pay the extra dollar, my family has sacrificed enough.
VT–like I said, we’re talking less than .03 percent of their state budget. They spend more on fucking toilet paper in the state capitol building than this.
Again, picking fly shit out of the pepper.
Up,
I work with teachers almost every day. I guess we have a better class of teacher out here – I hold them in very high regard, unlike you, who seem to rate them one level above pond scum. Don’t know if that’s just you, or if you have derelict teachers “up north”.
And I am tired of them being portrayed by conservatives as lazy job-qquatting leeches. That does not jibe at all with my observations. They are some of the most dedicated people I know.
When I came back from my last deployment in the reserves I was broke. I took a big pay cut to go. I did get the mortgage reduced and credit cards reduced and so on. I don’t recall if my state gave us a break on property taxes. I don’t think so; I think the bank just reduced the interest rate. I found out later my wife had been getting help from both sets of parents to pay the bills. To be fair, she also did some binge buying at times, which was part of her way of handling the stress of my deployment. We didn’t live near a base so the PX, Commissary and spouse support services you find on base weren’t much help. In garrison, Reserve/NG do have it easier than the actives. When deployed, it can be much more complicated. It took a couple of years to get our savings back. I’m glad I did went but it was a difficult time.
Now that I’m back, I’m trying to become a reserve law enforcement officer, which means I do my work for them for no pay at all. I’m starting to think my wife married an idiot.
They are some of the most dedicated people I know.
When they’re not busy humping students, graduating functional illiterates, or playing “sick” so they can bitch and moan about having to contribute a small percentage of what normal people contribute to their more than generous retirement plans.
Guess we’ve got a better class of teachers out here.
And let’s not forget the kiddy-diddler in CA who was taking bondage photos of his students who had to be paid off over $50K to not fight his firing.
Yeah, that kind of dedication we can fucking do without.
Joey, I spent 7 years working with teachers. Most were dedicated, some weren’t. Like the teacher banging one of his students in school after hours. But, the ones who do their jobs are overshadowed by the NEA reps who constantly parade to the mics complaining that, if there is a spare buck or two in the state budget, it has to go to education. Never mind that other citizens, who don’t have paid health care and 17 or 18 weeks off every year would like to see some of their state and local taxes lowered just a tad.
And, like Sparky said, graduating functional illiterates who just have to go to college, so they and their parents can continue to feed the education money machine.
So let me get this straight – because there are unfortunate people out there who don’t have health care (don’t get me started), teachers are scum? OK, I get it.
We have a school referendum to vote on every time we turn around here, always increasing the taxes for education and schools.
The joke here is: “If they gave a referendum and nobody voted on it, would it still pass?”
Answer: since the introduction of those referendums, not one of them has ever been voted down.
Joe: still MSU, I see.
My wife was an educator for 15 years in three different states. The last two years that she taught she was running the only behavior intervention program classroom in her county (the kids who are so disruptive that they can’t be in a conventional classroom, but not bad enough to be in a residential program). She loved it, but became disillusioned in the past few years. Why? Well, in one instance when she was teaching in a not very desirable suburb of Kansas City, MO, where beyond subpar was considered student success, she had her first encounter with a union driven school system and saw that the focus of the union and teachers was political and financial to the detriment of the students. In the next instance, the administration in the county, where she had worked previously and loved it, had become PC to the point that she was no longer comfortable. We decided that it would be best that, at the next PCS, she end teaching and stay at home with our then one year old son. To paraphrase her (a public school educator, and the daughter and niece of public school educators) it will be a dark day in hell before our son darkens the door of a public school.
I feel sorry for all you that live in areas where the schools are so bad. I have no such experience. Sure, I’ve met the occasional sub-par teacher, but on the whole they are amazing. Just regional differences I guess.
Joey, judging by the way you never get the point, are unable to articulate a rational thought, and wander off from the subject at hand, you’re a walking, typing example of everything that’s wrong with publik edukashun.
But, do keep on, you provide at least a modicum of entertainment.