Someone in the State Legislature has finally been fast enough on the up-take to recognize that the scheme that allows tax credits for donations to their kids’ schools benefits the rich more than the poor.
It’s a simple matter, really. Wealthy parents are more likely to have the discretionary cash to donate than are the poor. The result is that school districts with poorer populations receive less money with which to fund enrichment activities for their kids.
This is pointed out in a story in today’s Arizona Daily Star. There’s a little irony here. The story quotes Republican Rep. Mark Anderson, who was one of the original sponsors of the Arizona Tax Credit Program, the 1998 law that lets individuals donate up to $200 to public schools for clubs or class activities and get a dollar-for-dollar tax credit.
It’s taken Anderson eight years to recognize that the tax-credit deal he co-sponsored is inequitable, which may not be fast after all. Maybe only half fast. Here’s a quote from the Star:
"The one flaw … is that schools that are generally wealthier demographically have an easier time raising money from the parents who live there, because they can afford the $200," Anderson said.
“Differences in donations between districts and individual schools can be dramatic, he said. For example, Franklin West Elementary School in Mesa took in $5,817 in tax credits in 2005, while Red Mountain Ranch Elementary got $34,758.
Poorer families can't afford to give to their schools, Anderson said, even if they know they will get it back later.
Anderson wants to establish a corporate tax credit to fund a program that would make up the short fall. This would mean less money in the general fund. (As does the existing tax credit.)
Why, in the past nine years, hasn’t some Democratic legislator spoken up on this issue? Geeze, why not scrap the tax credit altogether, let the money stay in the general fund, bite the bullet and go on to fully fund education.
But that just ain't the Republican way.
…won’t cut it. On Christmas morning Katherine and I joined volunteers at the Tucson Convention Center to assist the Salvation Army in serving Christmas dinner. Our particular job was to drive around Tucson and deliver Christmas dinners to the sick or elderly who simply couldn’t leave their homes.
Christmas and Thanksgiving attract great numbers of volunteers eager to reach out to serve their fellow Tucsonans who are struck down by illness, homelessness, poverty, or the isolated loneliness of the elderly.
The Salvation Army PR person reports that more than 200 people volunteered on each of the two holidays. 3600 meals were served or delivered on Thanksgiving and 2400 on Christmas.
I think it’s fair to ask what good, in the long run, this annual feeding of the poor does. Of course it certainly provides a hot meal to people in need on two days out of the year. What it does not do is solve the problems of homelessness, poverty, the mentally ill forced on the streets as the result of the arbitrary closure of mental health facilities, or the social isolation that frequently comes with old age.
Feeding the poor is a ritual act, like washing feet, but as at least one famous foot-washer observed, “The poor you shall have always with you.” However extensive volunteerism becomes it will not solve problems embedded in a society’s social and political structure. The solutions require political action.
The value in volunteering is that it puts volunteers in direct contact with the poor and dispossessed. It reminds them (and I include myself here) that “the poor” are not just a category of social analysis but human beings. If we could get more people to spend just one day working in a homeless shelter they would be more inclined to endorse the political action necessary to really address the problems of poverty.
I wonder if that might not be the idea behind John Edwards’s One Corp?
A "Merry...Whatever" to each and all, among whom I include: Mike, Ted, Lisa, George Tuttle, Matt, Kralmajales, Sirocco and all the other commenters and bloggers (left and right) who have made the year's jiggery-bloggery so much fun.
If you decide to get into hacking my guess is that the most cost-effective way of doing that is to buy Russian Iron…that is, a complete Ural outfit, bike and sidecar, sold as a unit.
It may also be the least aggravating. Why? Because mating a sidecar to most modern motorcycles requires that you build, or buy and install, some type of sub-frame. Few contemporary motorcycles have what used to be called a full cradle frame. Today the engine is part of the frame and that offers fewer mounting points for the sidecar.
I sometimes refer to the Ural as the greatest motorcycle of 1943, but I really like these outfits. The Ural is a Russian copy of the WW II German BMW military hack. When the Urals were first imported, only the sidecars themselves were brought into the country. Full outfits, bike and car, came in later. The story of the Ural factory and the history of the bikes can be read at the official web site. link
The first outfits to come to the United States were, um..well, quality control challenged. Each year has seen improvements. Fit and Finish is excellent; engine size has been boosted to 750cc; new alternator; new carbs; electronic ignition. The bikes are constantly being improved and I don’t think a new buyer has much to worry about.
The current crop of Ural owners seems to be having a great time with their hacks, in large measure because of their boon-docking capabilities. Irbit Motorworks of America took bikes to Death Valley and filmed the hacks on some pretty gnarly desert trails. (Irbit, incidentally is the town in Russia where the bikes are made.) Take a look. link (This download is slow)
The military hack, although considered by the American armed forces, never caught on. Something better came along, the Jeep. The Russians are still promoting the Ural as having useful military applications. Here’s a clip from a longer promotional film. link (
Slow Download)
In a little over forty-five years of motorcycling I have almost always owned two bikes, a solo bike and a hack. A hack, of course, is a motorcycle with an attached sidecar. This is sometimes also referred to as an “outfit.” You can see a tiny picture of my current outfit in my profile over in the right panel. The bike is a BMW K1200RS. It is very fast.
Sidecarists (say, sigh-DECK-a-rists) are generally looked down on, or askance at, by solo bikers. The attitude of the lookers-down is either pitying or condescending.
The pitiers: “Poor old Bill got married and lumbered with rug rats. The poor guy’s old lady made him tie a tub to his motorcycle and now all he can do is putt around the neighborhood.”
The condescenders: “You got to hand it to gramps. He’s still out there in the wind, even though he’s too old and feeble to ride a real bike any more.”
We tend to get the sideways look from bikers who tried siDECarism once with less than satisfactory results. “Geeze, I tried one of those things once and it scared the #%*& out of me.” There’s a reason for that response, which we’ll examine later.
Sidecar driving is one of the great motorsports. It is both very different from two-wheel biking and at the same time very like it. Working a hack at speed along a looping mountain road can be a real challenge and great fun.
Sidecaring has changed a lot over the years. The current Grand Prix racing sidecar is pretty exotic, and the racing competition is between two-man teams, which you’ll see, in the following clip.
1000cc engines and top speeds of 170 miles per hour. We don need no stinkeen stock cars. (Click)
Sometimes the bear eats you and sometimes you eat the bear! In this case Pima County motorcyclists have eaten the bear. A story in the Arizona Daily Star reports that we’ll no longer have to take scoots for emissions testing.
In all the years they’ve been testing here in Tucson my bikes have never failed the test. I’m glad to be free of the pointless trip half way across town.
While The Data Point takes a holiday vacation from politics we’ll be posting about motorcycles in a series called “A Little Something on The Side.”
The Data Port surfaces from the frenzy of the alcoholidays to comment on the little disturbances of man…some of them my own.
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When you pass me the greetings of the season I’d appreciate it if you wouldn’t just pass off some generic greeting on me. Don’t wish me a ‘happy holiday’ out of misguided political correctness.
Instead wish me a Merry Christmas or a Happy Hanukkah. I can go with a Good Kwanza, or a Festive Festivus, too. In no case will I be insulted or injured. Rather I will take it that this is a season of particular significance to you and that your greeting is a generous invitation to join in your particular joy.
I find it annoying when I offer someone a Merry, or a Happy, or a Good, or a Festive greeting to be snapped back at, “How do you know I’m….”
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Incidentally I have, for the first time in three or four years, followed the grand pagan tradition of tree worship and gaily decorated my Festivus Pole. It is a genuine Chinese imitation pine tree. Political prisoners probably built it but they did a great job! It actually sheds its needles just like a real tree.
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Have you noticed that ads by the watch-making industry are through the slick magazines like citron in fruitcake? To give your sweetie or your guy a Rolex or an Audemars Piguet, A Mont Blanc or Breguet is a big deal. It is the big deal, never mind that it can break your Christmas budget and cause your bank account to implode.
I suppose it’s the status value of these watches that make them sought after. If you can afford that much for a wristwatch you must surely have arrived.
It may be that these watches are essentially a guy thing. They are, after all, the last, the ultimate, achievement in mechanical timekeeping. Ooooh, wheels, cogs, springs, jewel bearings, dozens of finely machined parts, all whirring and spinning!
As mechanical collectibles they may certainly be worth the money for the folks who lust after them. They keep pretty good time, too, which somewhat justifies the thousands you can pay for them.
On the other hand if keeping really accurate time is your primary need you can get a very nice radio controlled watch that keeps time more accurately than an old fashioned mechanical watch for about 35 bucks.
I read in this morning’s Arizona Daily Star that everyone’s favorite political reporter, D. Scarpinato, has been cited for DUI. (link) A comment on this story led to an interesting backgrounder on Scarpinato from the Arizona Daily Wildcat. (link)
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On a political note…this is the season when schools across the state urge us to make tax-free donations to our kids’ schools. Your good deed will be rewarded with a handsome tax right-off. For couples filing jointly this means you could knock as much as four hundred bucks off your state income tax bill, hence doing well by doing good.
Instead of giving tax money to the state general fund you may give it to your kids’ school so that Sis and Junior and their classmates can take advantage of increased extra-curricular goodies. Well, hell, you were going to have to part with that money anyway, why not use it for you and yours rather than put it into the general fund where it might be spent to enhance education all over the state?
What a deal, right? Well, yeah, if you live in the rich part of town…say Tucson’s Catalina Foothills. For folks up there a little discretionary cash is not a problem. But what if you live in a community that is not so blessed, one where life is often lived paycheck to paycheck? Even a little may be hard to come by.
Well, let the kids get back to basics. Who needs more than that?
My suggestion is that if you want to take advantage of this program you might want to find out what school districts in the state have the poorest families and make your donation to those schools.
(To read the details of this tax deal for the well-to-do, visit the Arizona
Department of Revenue. (link)
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For some months now The Data Port has been running a parallel blog, DataPortMotorcycles. The point of the exercise was not to clog the Lefty Blog feed with non-political posting during the hot and heavy campaign season.
I’ve deleted DataPortMotorcycles, so once in a while you may expect to read some motorcycle news, purely personal reflections, and commentaries on the little disturbances of man, right here.
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As a final 'housekeeping ' note I'll be cutting back on the blogging in the interest of taking time to celebrate the holidays both religious and secular.
“Stand up and be Counted” is no longer standing up and no longer being counted. Its owner has deleted the entire blog. I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand it was George’s blog and he can damn well do with it as he pleases.
On the other hand the blog and all its comments were part of the history of one of the most interesting political campaigns in recent Arizona politics. In deleting it he deleted not only his own commentary but also all the comments from both left and right. Looked back on in a cool moment the whole collection might have helped us understand what was important to the electorate, and why.
Tuttle seems to have come to the conclusion that political blogging is somehow a waste of time—time that would be better spent in practical action out in the community.
I certainly approve of action in the streets, but I would remind George that the blogosphere is also becoming the great alternative press. At the moment there is a good deal more rant and a good deal less responsible reportage than we might want, but that will change.
Currently, the major non-opinion function of the blogosphere is editorial, pointing out stories that might otherwise have gone un-read and un-remarked on if some blogger had not said, “Hey, here’s an interesting story,” and added a link.
I believe that dedicated amateur journalists, like amateur astronomers, can make a significant contribution to their particular areas of interest.
Mike Bryan, over at Blog for Arizona, raises an interesting question: After a year of partisan warfare how should liberal bloggers direct their energies? As Mike puts it,
“My heart just isn't in the blogging at the moment. Every time I think about a topic I might want to blog about a little voice says, "Well, who cares, really?" I've been locked in oppositional mode for so long that I've lost the taste for anything but GOP blood.”
I have a modest suggestion for a collective undertaking by Arizona’s political bloggers of both the left and the right. You’ve probably noticed that the daily press has pretty much stopped local political reporting even though there is plenty going on in each party.
(Even during the hot dead center of the political campaign I doubt that political reporters—many of them relative newcomers—would have written as much had it not been for the fact that they were bombarded by press releases.)
I think we should take over the neglected political reporting. Why not attend your district’s Republican and Democratic club meetings and briefly report on what’s going on. Is there a leadership debate, local pressure for a particular piece of legislation, or action plan under consideration?
Volunteer to cover your legislative district’s representatives. How are they voting, what are they saying about current and future legislation? Call them on the phone, introduce yourself, and get them to think of you as a reporter, rather than yet another disputatious blogger. (Grins)
Just a couple of suggestions, but you get the idea. Less editorializing, more reporting.
A note from Tucson’s Primavera Foundation reminded me of what I should be truly grateful for. I am grateful for the fact that my family and I are not amongst the twenty percent of Tucsonans living in poverty. (U.S. Census Bureau figures)
This is the highest poverty rate of any city in Arizona.
Quoting from the Primavera Foundation mailing:
“The sheer number of people struggling to survive on the streets, in the washes, or in temporary shelters can be overwhelming. According to the Arizona Deprtment of Economic Development there may be as many as 20,000-30,000 homeless people on any given night. Children make up approximately 40% of the homeless population.”
Happy Holidays, All
At last night’s meeting of the District 26 Democrats, Peggy Toomey Hammann was elected Chair, replacing the retiring Juana Mase. Hammann’s candidacy was actively supported at the meeting by Rev. Gerry Straatemeier, MSW. Straatemeier is an advocate of, and contributor to, the Sonoran Progressives' web site. The SP is headed by Jeff Latas.
Hammann is a relative newcomer to District 26, but not to the Party. She served as the 1st Vice Chair of the Arizona Democratic Party; Vice Chair, Democratic National Committee (Western States Caucus) and 1st Vice Chair of the Coconino County Democratic Party.
In her introductory remarks before the election Hammann announced that she had been urged to run by Lena Saradnik, District 26’s newly elected Democratic House member. Saradnik did not attend the meeting.
Clearly the Progressives are doing what all interest groups within a party try to do…expand their spheres of influence for the sake of changing the party’s direction. Fair enough, and they’re going about it the right way.
So far the only explicit program the Progressives have had (apart from general statements about promoting various aspects of the general welfare) is urging the rapid withdrawal from Iraq.
By the time Arizona Progressive Democrats achieve enough influence to move the sluggish national party beast in their direction on Iraq the issue may be settled. (Not necessarily to anyone’s satisfaction.)
It will be interesting to see what Arizona-oriented action plans they come up with. How about the complete repeal of Arizona's "right to work" laws?
Now that would be progressive.
Congresswoman elect Giffords was given a piece of advice by old Washington hands: Don’t get stuck on the top floor of the Cannon House Office Building. Well, Gabby drew number 47 in the lottery to pick space and ended up on the top floor of Cannon.
Because J. D. Hayworth would not concede, his very desirable office in the Rayburn Office building was held out of the office lottery. It will now go to Harry Mitchell.
When the Republicans took over they assigned what Gabby describes as a large hallway to the Democrats to use as their caucus space. She was there when some fairly rueful Republican staffers came down to measure how to divide up their new hallway.
Couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch…what goes around comes around!
Rant One
I’ve been taking some time off---obviously. I haven’t really had much to say about the election, a state of affairs that seems to have affected more than one member of the blogosphere. We won what we won, lost what we lost, and although there have been plenty of voting machine problems there does not seem to have been any out-and-out fraud.
I’ve been bemused by the talking heads’ analysis of the Democratic victory, which is that it evidences a great swing to the center. Sorry, but I think that’s a big heap of horse poop.
What happened was that Americans were dismayed by what they took to be an attack on some of the axioms of American Democracy, one of the most basic being the rule of law. They were appalled by the notion that the law was to be the law except when the Great Decider decided it wasn’t.
Most of us having been raised on the notion of equal justice for all were aghast at the notion that that no longer applied, even to citizens--- who could be arbitrarily imprisoned without trial or access to the evidence against them. Habeas Corpus? Drowned in the neo-con’s bathtub.
We were repelled by the notion that our privacy could be violated without the protection of judicial oversight.
More than once Republic committee chairs refused even to entertain issues proposed by Democratic members, a violation, it seems to me, of the notion of fair legislative procedure, which requires that opposing ideas be heard, even if the majority will, in the end, reject them.
None of these violated principals belong distinctively to the left or the right, but to the very foundations of American democracy. Rising up in defense of them does not constitute a great movement toward the center.
“Hands Across the Aisle” and “The New Bipartisan Spirit” are all well and good, but there was none of that from the Neo-Con Republic Party when it was in the majority. Democrats should use their power fairly, but by God they should use it…and undo some of the damage of the last six years.
There is still a great difference between the Repulic Party and the Democratic Party. We forget this at our peril.
It will take a few more weeks for happy Democrats of all stripes to move out of celebration mode and begin to offer a plan of action for America’s future.
Crafting such a plan may be harder than we think. It’s possible to argue that the Democratic victory was fueled primarily by anger over Iraq coupled with what was perceived as the Bush administration arrogance and incompetence.
Bush will be gone in two years. He may effectively be gone, or going, already. When Bush and the war are no longer our issues, when Democrats are deprived of something to run against what will they run for? What should the program be?
Here is (in part) what the Sonoran Progressives want to do:
“Advocate and promote policies that improve the health, education, environment, prosperity, safety, and well-being of the residents of southern Arizona, the nation, and the world.”
Frankly I don’t think most Republicans would disagree with those goals, but the devil is in the details. What is to be done? What exactly should we advocate to see those goals achieved?
5:30 PM
In about an hour I’ll be heading out to Tucson’s Doubletree Hotel to watch the returns at Gabrielle Giffords’s campaign suite. The Doubletree is where all the Democrats are gathering to enjoy either the thrill of victory or the agony of defeat. I think it’s safe to say that they are expecting the former and will be surprised by the latter…although we won’t know until the traditional fat lady sings.
Before I leave I want to say something about voter suppression calls, which have been a feature of this campaign. So far as I have heard or know all such calls have originated from Republican supporters.
Such calls represent an essential contempt for the voters and disregard of traditional political discourse. They are an attack, not on their opponents, but on the very system of electoral democracy. When you have run out of arguments, plans, or programs what is left but to attack the system, to discourage men and women who are, after all, your fellow citizens…from exercising their electoral rights.
This kind of campaigning is symptomatic of the intellectual bankruptcy of the Republican Party, of its desperation, and its struggle to stay in power without consideration for truth or decency.
It is despicable, and it’s loathed by many traditional Republicans.
1:30 PM
Just got off the phone with Steve Farley, who was poll-watching at the Lighthouse Y on in central Tucson. He reports that voters were coming in non-stop for the three hours he was on duty. A very large turnout.
Farley also reports that he was approached by four Republican voters who said they were so angry with the current crop of Republicans that they voted Democratic. “I’m bitter” one told Farley.
Rumor: I’m hearing a story that voters on the south and west sides were being intimidated by people (wearing black shirts ? Hard to believe) taking pictures with video cameras. Anyone heard anything?
6:42 AM
Back from my polling place. I arrived a few minutes early and by the time it actually opened there were 10 people in line. Poll workers seemed just a little disorganized to begin with, slightly unsure of the most efficient way to handle the paperwork. After processing four or five voters things seemed to smooth out.While we were waiting for the first hitches to un-hitch someone in line pointed to the vote counting machine and asked what that was. A voice from the back of the line said, “That’s the vote shredder!”Note to both parties: When people make jokes like that about the honesty and security of the voting system we should be seriously concerned.It takes a while to mark the ballot, what with all the ballot propositions, and by the time I left there were 25 people in line. A volunteer at the 75 ft limit was holding up a sign urging a NO vote on 107
5:23 AM
Okay, I’m like a kid on Christmas Eve. I go to bed early the night before so the big day will come even sooner. The alarm went off at five this morning but I had been awake for a while. Got up, hit the shower, checked my ID and got ready to go to out to vote. Polls open a 6 and I like to get there when they do.
I’ll report when I get back.
According to the latest Tucson Weekly/Wick Communication Poll:
"The survey of 400 Congressional District 8 voters, which was conducted by local pollster Margaret Kenski, showed that half favor Giffords; 35 percent say they will vote for Graf; and 11 percent remain undecided. Just 2 percent of voters said they were supporting Libertarian David Nolan, while 1.5 percent said they liked independent Jay Quick."
Read the whole report on the Tucson Weekly Blog.
Someone in the State Legislature has finally been fast enough on the up-take to recognize that the scheme that allows tax credits for donations to their kids’ schools benefits the rich more than the poor.
