What are you most concerned about? - Page 3

cathleeninnh · 05-12-2008, 03:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by calimari

I'm worried about all of it, but I see the housing foreclosure thing causing quite a domino effect. Houses are foreclosed on/ taxes are not being collected. Other home values go down. Tax revenues go down. Cities & states can't do all the services they normally do as their revenues are down. Roads do not get repaired/sewers do not get fixed/bridges do not get maintenance. Basically, infrastructure starts to go downhill because there is no money to maintain/fix/build. More people are out of work applying for aid. People who have jobs are not having their income keep up w/ inflation. The gap between rich & poor increase as the middle class dwindles to nothing. We slowly start to work towards becoming a 3rd world country where the wealthy have opportunity and the poor have nothing.

Our tax bills don't work that way. Our towns set the budget and then a tax rate is calculated based on property values. If the budget stays the same (HA HA) and values drop, the tax rate goes up but the tax bill stays the same. If the values go up, the rate goes down and the tax bill stays the same.

That is the simple explanation. We still have a hard time convincing people that their tax bill went up because they voted for more town services.

Cathleen

queenboxtop · 05-12-2008, 04:43 PM

Health insurance is my main concern. My DH works for a very small company and we couldn't afford the co-pay to be on their insurance it was $500 a month so we went to private insurance and it doesn't cover much. No ER, no med care clinic, no shots for the kids, no flu shot, and we only get 4 office visits a year.

I only keep it because with little ones you HAVE to have some type of coverage.

kikisian · 05-13-2008, 02:58 PM

For me gas prices effect everything else. Higher gas prices = higher food prices. Everytime the gas price goes up I cringe knowing the knockon effect is going to make my budget harder to balance.

Keep Smiling · 05-13-2008, 04:28 PM

Health care. Personally I can't stand how complicated it is. I worked for an HMO for 15 years and I still can't understand DH's current contract. Neither can the customer service reps of his health plan. Nor could I help my MIL when she was trying to select a Medicare plan.

cb4326 · 05-13-2008, 04:32 PM

For me right now it is health care. After having my DD over a year ago i had to quit my job as a retail operations manager, (worked CRAZY hours, i never would have seen my DD, and didn't have day care coverage for the wild hours i worked anyway) and go back to substitute teaching. So now, for the first time in my life i do not have health care coverage. SO SCARY! My DD is covered under my fiance's plan, but since we are not married i cannot be added on. I know i need to look into some independant insurance, but it's so expensive, and is something i just keep putting off.

stxmom · 05-13-2008, 04:40 PM

From those choices its Health Care but Education is my top concern right now.