From westodd@en.com Mon Apr  7 22:03:29 1997
To: rob@ct.picker.com (Rob Logan)
Subject: Re: (Fwd) Re: (Fwd) school tax

A Constitutional and "natural law" form of taxation is as follows: Fed
govt.  should be as small as possible and should be supported through
customs revenues, a national final retail sales tax collected by,
administered by, and apportioned among the states, with the IRS totally
abolished (you wouldn't need it anymore).  States MAY (but definitely
not should) resort to income taxation (flat rates, please, with no
"progressivity") but should be encouraged to rely on sales tax revenues
primarily, as at present in many states.  Counties and other local
governments should rely primarily on the property tax, without income
taxation, flat rate, progressive, or otherwise.  Although the idea of
equalizing school spending across the state is ridiculous, if that is
the desideratum of the public (which I doubt), then the state should
fund (and, alas, therefore control) the public schools.  In the
particular branch of constitutional law that applies to Ohio, derived
from Jeffersonian (not New England or Hamiltonian ideas--those came
later) ideas and the Northwest Ordinance that he drafted, as well as his
basic ideas of state constitutions that underlay our 1802 constitution,
it is desirable for the state or its political subdivisions to establish
public schools and to make financial provision for them.  This is not
and should not be a carbon copy of the worst aspects of English society,
where a sufficient education to enable the people to govern themselves
was the province of the rich alone until this century.  That is not to
say that the public schools have to be just alike or funded at the level
of the University School all across the state -- counties and local
governments should make those choices.  In our model of government here,
which for good and sufficient reason differs from the model elsewhere
(in other states or regions), it is desirable for the people to be able
to govern themselves.  Otherwise, as seems to be happening at present,
they become the serfs of a not terribly enlightened rich or politically
powerful class.  Paid any sin taxes to support sports stadiums
lately?--Walker Todd