[speaker001:] okay what is your uh general opinion then of of taxes for the Americans
[speaker002:] um I don't think that I'm paying too many tax you know too much tax myself
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] uh I uh as far as uh you know federal and state uh the uh the state I live in has a five percent sales tax
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] uh it's quite a bit different than uh Texas I don't know if you've ever been outside of Texas but uh when I moved to Texas I was told oh well there's no personal income tax well they nail you on property taxes in uh Texas and then that's how they get their money to take care of the schools and things
[speaker001:] right yeah uh as a matter of fact they're talking about changing the the tax situation in Texas because the the schools are not they're not equitable within the state so they're changing that they're talking about changing the uh the tax base and how the taxes are distributed to the schools which will probably mean uh another increase in property taxes either that or uh starting a state income tax
[speaker002:] yeah I I found it interesting uh when I moved to Texas the fact that uh the reason people wanted to get their kids into Plano was to go to the Plano school district because it was the best because it had more money than you know other places and uh I just um in the uh like here in Maryland uh I just bought a uh a house for a hundred and forty one thousand it'd be about sixty thousand down there and um the tax basis is actually uh less than the full price of the house
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] so you end up paying property taxes on what they value the house at I think they only have the house valued at probably about ninety or a hundred thousand dollars
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] whereas when I was in Texas I notice that they put the tax basis at at almost the uh full price
[speaker001:] almost full value right yeah
[speaker002:] and so there was quite a difference there
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] um I think that the way they they levy taxes is a little bit uh crazy I think if if they uh people and and I'll use Plano as an example uh house prices in Plano were falling and so they decided well in order to get more tax revenue we're going to have to raise the price uh you know we're going to have to raise the uh the the uh tax per hundred dollars of value on the house
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] and same time they were approving new starts in homes hand over fist well when you start having a large supply of homes then of course the price goes you know the value of the house is going to fall and the existing family homes were the ones that were falling the new homes they were building cheaper and and able to sell cheaper and so people weren't buying the existing family homes so
[speaker001:] right right
[speaker002:] they were shooting themselves in the foot and you know if they just would have thought well gee if we don't you know if we put a freeze on new home starts that will bring the price of houses back up our tax base revenue will go up and we won't have to increase taxes and make it more of a burden on people that are living here
[speaker001:] yeah I guess that's a possibility uh as I understand it Maryland does not have any uh state income tax is that right
[speaker002:] no no they do have state income tax
[speaker001:] oh okay so
[speaker002:] yeah that's and they uh they divide it up by um you know you pay a state income tax and then fifty percent of your state income tax is a county tax which is collected by the state and redistributed to the counties
[speaker001:] okay then uh all of your state income tax is deductible for federal income tax purposes
[speaker002:] that is correct
[speaker001:] okay did you live in Texas after the uh after they stopped letting you deduct uh sales tax on your tax return
[speaker002:] um yes I did I only lived in Texas in eighty seven and um eighty eight and uh part of eighty nine
[speaker001:] okay so so you couldn't deduct state income uh state sales tax when you lived in Texas
[speaker002:] no
[speaker001:] so what do you think about the difference between those two situations
[speaker002:] um in Texas I was oh I believe the uh tax sales tax was somewhere around seven eight eight percent
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] here in Maryland it's only five um it was nice to have that uh you know deduction when it was available
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] uh but when they revamped the you know supposedly making things more fair um I've heard a lot of different arguments uh pro and con about whether we should allow deductions for sales tax or even uh maybe we should put more emphasis on sales tax because when you think about it the people that purchase more items are the ones that are better able to pay the taxes
[speaker001:] right
[speaker002:] you know people that are out there barely struggling to pay their uh house payment and buy food aren't going to be out buying you know anything else and the people that you know have the uh disposable income that are probably more able to pay the income tax uh or pay the sales tax are the ones that are really you know have the money and they're out there buying the items maybe they should be you know paying more of the burden um there was there's another crazy thing that gets me it's like the more children you have the less tax you pay and to me that is completely crazy and I have five children so I mean you know I uh I you know it it's kind of odd when I talk about this with other people because it it just doesn't make sense to me you're getting more services
[speaker001:] yeah yeah um-hum
[speaker002:] you know your children are going you know you've got five children in school instead of somebody that only has one or none and so you they're paying more income tax to pay for your children to go to school it just you know doesn't make sense
[speaker001:] yeah that's that's an interesting uh interesting concept I hadn't thought about that how you you you know that that's right I guess in a sense I guess the you know the idea is that uh the more people you have in the family the more allowances you need you know the more uh capability you need to uh to pay for food and clothing and stuff for them so the they give you more allowances more dependent allowances for that
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] but uh you know I understand what you're where you're coming from with the
[speaker002:] yeah now the other side of the question is about are we getting what we're paying for um for the most part I think we are but there is a lot of inefficiency uh both on the federal level and on the state level and uh hopefully we'll you know as we start to go into computerization and all the processes maybe we'll be able to streamline it
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] um I haven't kept up with uh the Texas politics other than that dirty little uh governor fight
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] but I mean uh we have a a governor here in Maryland who's uh pretty hard nosed and uh he's you know we're three hundred fifty million dollars short and every time he comes up with a plan to cut the money everybody starts screaming and yelling
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] and uh every time he wants to cut one budget or do something else or try to do something you know they start screaming yelling they won't let him raise the taxes and and they they won't let him cut any programs and he's like what do you guys want me to do
[speaker001:] right
[speaker002:] I mean
[speaker001:] yeah that's I guess uh one thought that occurred to me uh is we're we're talking about having uh national uh military or or public service deal for young people
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] maybe a program like that could replace some of the uh welfare programs if uh you know if we're going to do that then we ought to really get some benefit dollar benefits out of it that uh to reduce spending in some other areas uh you know to do something to eliminate what uh what they refer to as transfer payments
[speaker002:] yes
[speaker001:] because uh that's I think that's where our real you know the real problem with government is not is not what the not what the government's doing but where it's spending its money it's it's encouraging people to to uh not do as well as they can you know uh not have as much output and all that you're paying people not to work and you're paying people to have more kids and you know like you said you know more kids you have the more dependents you have you know the allowances you get and uh the more you have the more uh aid for dependent childre n you can get and all of these things go into it so
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] but uh some kind of a national service uh concept that might be geared around reducing that would be a I think would be a big step so
[speaker002:] yeah that and I think uh putting more emphasis on local handling of the problem I think this is something that that Bush came out and said in his uh in his address uh to the nation at the beginning of the year
[speaker001:] right
[speaker002:] um you know it used to be that communities would take care of their own and that you know the states would take care of the communities and then all of a sudden everybody starting looking to the federal government
[speaker001:] right it uh
[speaker002:] and uh you know once you start up at the top and try to get those dollars on down to the hands that need them you know there's a lot of places the money stops and disappears along the way
[speaker001:] right
[speaker002:] and uh maintenance and overhead and you know and and those kind of costs
[speaker001:] yeah right I I think that a a big part of the uh you know the government concept over the last fifty years has been uh redistribution of uh of wealth in in effect
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] uh you know you you tax the people that have the most and the people that don't have anything get it for nothing
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] and uh and I don't think that's the American way myself it uh it kind of rings of you know socialism and
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] and I just I don't understand why the American leaders uh seem to think that that's the way to go you know that uh there are not I don't think that there are that many people that feel that way that with what they could get support for
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] or making the American system work in the way it's originally designed to
[speaker002:] yeah there there's uh you know once you reach a certain plateau in in finances um