Arcata Tax Day Penny Poll Invites Public to Weigh In on Federal Spending
Tax Day Penny Poll
Residents will have a chance to weigh in on how they believe tax dollars should be spent during the annual Tax Day Penny Poll, set for today, April 15, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. outside the North Coast Co-op in Arcata.
The interactive event invites passersby to take part in a simple exercise: participants receive ten pennies and are asked to distribute them among ten wide-mouth bottles, each labeled with a category of government spending such as Health, Education, Environment, and Military, along with six additional categories representing other areas of the federal budget.
After placing their pennies, participants are encouraged to compare their choices with current federal spending allocations, offering a visual and tangible way to consider budget priorities.
Organizers describe the activity as both educational and engaging, designed to spark conversation about how public funds are distributed and how those priorities align—or differ—from community perspectives.
The event is free and open to the public throughout the day.
Join the discussion! For rules visit: https://kymkemp.com/commenting-rules
Comments system how-to: https://wpdiscuz.com/community/postid/10599/
Hard decision. Trump’s golf trips for sure. ICE funding and the Iranian war. Will there be a
Trump’s new ballroom bottle?
The ballroom is funded by private donation. Golf is mostly paid for out of the President pocket. Only the security is public money. The war in Iran is a conflict. Most Americans are in favor of it. Most Persians are in favor of it. ICE has a job to do. They are doing it. Only some libtard states and cities are causing the problems.
So, WIN WIN!
The ballroom was funded in part by payoffs from fatcats, but the wildly ballooning cost is now expected to be paid in tax dollars. And Trump doesn’t have the authority to destroy and change the People’s House; it requires an act of Congress to authorize a change and the costs. Taxpayers have paid more than 100 MILLION dollars, in significant part to Trump’s resorts, for his golf outings alone. More than 60% of the public condemns Trump’s chosen war. ICE is murdering people, which is not their job, and disappearing people, including citizens who have never broken the law, into hellhole concentration camps, where children are being rated by ICE. So much winning, especially in light of mocking Jesus, that even Trump’s own followers are protesting.
As usual a commenter swings into outrage with assorted selected opinions cited as facts. Trump has “building disease” and always has. His sense of honoring the past is absent, his love of gilding everything in sight out of control. His impulse to raise monuments to himself almost unchecked. Nothing new here.
But his idea that he can get away with anything he wants is not unique. That his opponents only want to destroy him personally and therefore not important to seperate his wants from the country’s needs. And the left and the Deomcrats just keep reinforcing that it’s all about Trump. Hello? It’s not that the left was ever all about traditional values in government like fiscal responsibility, respect for citizen’s values, honored law and order, respected patriotism, etc. The left trashed those values wholesale, tried to substitute victimhood as a principle of government.that works but are continually surprised about how badly that works.
Somewhere in the last twenty or thirty years, it has become almost required to deride and dismiss reasonable people who respect the law. Prior to Trump, comments from the left were about how the Constitution was too old, society too racist and traditional values were fascist. Hello? Liberals ranted about everything they now want to use as criticism. Too bad, so sad but, having trashed the idea of love of country and trying to impose Progressive ideals instead, here everyone has arrived- full of contempt and unwilling to shut up about it. Too late to start whining about shattered American values now after the left did so much to shatter them. Ten billion laws mandating what every has to do can not make up for having gutted patriotism that wants the good of the country.
so many feet with bullet wounds
Was there a jar for who gets government funding but doesn’t have to pay for it or who doesn’t get government funding but does the paying? Like this is anything more than a hectoring, copycat demonstration in a university town that their opinion matters more than reality. Given ten pennies, huh? There’s a problem in that pennies are not even minted anymore. Ironic.
Taking a poll in Arkata outside the coop is a bit one sided. That is the trouble with polls. You have to poll a wide demographic to get a true reading. This is just an anti Trump protest.
I’d agree. You’d need to do it in common public areas of the 5 largest communities and the tribes, being they’ve been around forever too. That will get you a more accurate representation. What are they trying to prove with the data? Is this a Cal Poly social experiment for a class or they reporting to some other group?
Last time I stopped in Arcata and bought a few things, I was shocked by the sales tax. I don’t know how you guys do it. That is pay more and more due to the taxes. Many of my family still lives in Mendocino county and just complain how much it costs to live.
We live in a world of ascending Progressive Socialism as evidenced by Arcata – people that live there and the local government. They, as well as everyone else will be subject to the Thatcher Rule: Socialism is works great… until you run out of other people’s money.
I’m still in Mendocino part-time. Even in Laytonville Willits the gas is much less expensive than Humboldt and it gets cheaper as you go south. The sales tax is not as much as Humboldt and Arcata is even more than Humboldt County. The price of products is less expensive along the 101 corridor at least in Mendocino. Humboldt is VERY expensive and Arcata is the most expensive (ok besides Trinidad). Arcata residents have a blind spot about the economic reality in which they are living. After a few decades “investigation” into Arcata’s bizarre realities I’m comfortable to say that most of the residents are trust-funders, inheritance vultures or otherwise economically privileged who are willingly blind to their own esteemed positions. Under no circumstance should they be making decisions about the people outside of their bubble…
We have the basic Federal and State taxes, and then sales taxes which I think influences the variances in price. Of course there’s the cost of putting it all on a barge here too. Then again, there’s no depot or pipeline in places like Brookings and pay $1.50 less per gallon. Local taxes play into that too and we see it in places like Willits as you say. Just wait until the per-mile taxes are put in place and jacked up every year until we’re all walking. Then there will be a shoe tax.
”tax your feet for taking a walk!”
Sales tax is a regressive tax. It affects poor people more than rich folx. Ironically, the more progressive a place claims to be, the more likely it is that they have voted for an elevated sales tax rate.
I’ve seen that play out right in front of me over and over. Someone that’s scraped a dollar together to get something to snack on (regardless of their current life position) and can’t get it because they have 95 cents, and the 10% tax puts it over a dollar, and they forgot their wallet somewhere that has a debit card. It may be just a dollar but the retailer lost the sale AND the sales tax isn’t being remitted on it either. Or someone paying a thousand dollars but only has $1050 available, also has to make a choice of sale/no-sale when the tax pushes it over $1100. That’s an even bigger hit if the customer opts not to buy a lower priced item, or one isn’t available. The merchant has to lower the price to keep the sale, and the city still takes their cut, if the sale is even made.
I wish 10 cents would pay my tax bill. No new taxes until waste and fraud is eliminated!
3 cents to Department of Defense. 1 cent to Department of Homeland Security, 5 cents towards National Debt. Every other department begs for a share of the remaining penny.
That amount is all the government shall be allowed to tax. 10 cents on the dollar. The government shall not get more than the tithe we give to our church.
95% of it goes to israel, 3% goes to military, and the last 2% goes to a hedge fund keeping Trump’s golf courses green 😂
I believe it was in England (of course) where a tax was levied on the tails of working dogs (think sheep dogs). The sheep herders responded by cutting off the dog’s tail. No tail, no tax.