Please assess a law that would allow 62+ adults to be free of paying school taxes. Our children are long gone.

Question

My wife and I would like to retire but must continue working part time to keep up with property taxes,let alone the $3300 we must pay to the school education fund in our community. Our children are grown and working why should we have to support schools we have no children in.

Answer 1

I'll let you stop paying property tax when I can stop paying social security tax. We paid almost $10,000.00 last year so you can see the doctor.

Answer 2

That is a short sighted and self centered view. Others supported the schools for your children, now you should support them for the next generation. Unless of course you nobly and courageously paid out of pocket every penny of your childrens' education and are doing the same for your grandkids.

For some tax relief look into having your property assessment frozen when you retire, that can help. Also look into other expenditures that appear on your tax bill, check out local pensions and the salaries of your local county and city politicians, that'll knock your socks off!

If a little $3300 tax bill is keeping you from retiring, you are probably not financially prepared for it anyway.

HOLLY: I know this is not directly related to the question, but as a boomer, I must tell you that the real problem with SS happened when LBJ and Congress merged the social security fund into the general budget fund and spent it on day to day expenses; when you blame the boomers, you are not entirely correct - that's like blaming price increases at colleges for being unable to attend when actually someone spent all of your college funds on something entirely unrelated.

Answer 3

I have to agree with the majority of the replies - you can stop paying school tax when my generation stops paying social security that we will never ever see the benefit of! That way you could hike my taxes on school - which I would have no problem with - but if you think there are issues with Social Security now just imagine where they would be if the working class just stopped financing it!
I realize the retirees of today payed into social security when they worked too, but the reality is that todays payers are working for significantly higher wages and paying in large amounts -- and the retirees will collect over a lifetime far more than they ever payed into it. See it's a viscious cycle!

I am gonna say here - I do not like paying into a program that is supposedly for my benefit because I know it will not be there when I get to retirement age (therefore I have sock away an ADDITIONAL 6-12% of my income to hope to one day retire) - I want my government to pull it's head of out their *** and stop acting like we are paying for our future! Let's call it what it is - we are supporting the presently retired and I have no issue with that....if the government would stop lying and wasting the money! I have a 92 year old Grandmother who worked her entire life from age 14 to 67 who can barely exist on social security and her tiny pension. I will gladly pay into the system for folks like her and the rest who NEED social security and worked so hard for it! (I do not like knowing there are all the SSD whiners on there who should be out WORKING but that's another story).

So - this generation is paying for the previous generations retirement, and property taxes educate the children of tomorrow so that when we get there someone can take of us........circle of life.

Answer 4

With all due respect, my generation is paying social security out of every paycheck, and we will never see a dime of it due to the baby boomer generation using it all...I understand your point, but at the same time, I notice an attitude of entitlement amongst the retired and/or elderly that EVERYTHING should be free or discounted, and while I appreciate your contributions to society, don't EXPECT to be exempt from every fee that the rest of us are paying. I have seen elderly have a FIT for paying full-price for coffee. Why should parts of my paycheck go towards a war I don't support? Why should my paycheck be further reduced by Medicare deductions of which I don't use...Because thats America. We pay out of the @$$ to have the rights we have, and while there SHOULD be a better way, right now there isn;t, and until we put someone in office who cares about the needs of the middle man, not making the rich even richer, then we will always be gouged....



***As a follow up, I am in no way BLAMING the lack of SS funds for my generation on the baby boomers, that is quite obviously a poor decision made by our government, and I would never blame that on my parents generation. What I AM doing is making a point about something my generation pays for regardless of the fact that we will never see personal benefit from... Please do not misunderstand my point.

Answer 5

There are many couples with no children that pay property taxes that supported your children when they were in school. Any such proposed law would not pass and would not be reasonable...we must all support education one way or another....remember you are expecting those students who develop there to make sure you are taken care of in your golden years...you want a bunch of uneducated unqualified people doing this....how do we fund education when we say that only those who have kids in school pay the tax...thats called private school.

Answer 6

Hi,

This is a website for the State of Oregon, but some States do offer this same benefit.

I suggest for you to read this website information, then call your county and find out if they also offer the Deferral. Sometimes they have the same benefits but call it something different.

I wish you good luck. I understand how hard it is to pay for these property taxes at your age and having so limited income.

Answer 7

The public benefits from public education not only because their own children get educated, but because they benefit from the education given to other people's children who then are productive members of the society which serves them.

That being said, there does need to be some mechanism for protecting retirees from rising property taxes. My own parents had to move out of NY and go to Florida mainly because of property taxes.

Answer 8

So your children got free education but now you don't want to pony up for the rest of the children. That isnt how it works.

If you dont like the way the laws are written use your retirement time to work for changes.

Answer 9

Sure you know I don't have kids either right now and I have to pay social security that I probably won't ever see. We are all in this together. If you don't like what your community charges move to a different one that doesn't charge as much for taxes.

Answer 10

Can I stop paying into SSI? It's not like I'll ever be able to collect it.