Comments on: Homeless Census Today, Shelter Use Increases

By: Lita Arnold

Lita Arnold — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 02:02:04 +0000

Just want to say thanks. I’ve downloaded this document and will read it carefully. I need to learn about homelessness. I have a 46 year old son living in Colorado who has been homeless for 5 years. I wonder if they have as attractive a plan as Arlington has for helping these unfortunate people.

By: drax

drax — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 16:04:57 +0000

They’re going to tear it down and stop using it after five years?

By: novasteve

novasteve — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 15:35:22 +0000

I only take the standard deduction. don’t own a place, so I dont’ get a mortgage interest deduction, despite my rent paying for interest (so home owners get a “subsidy”. I can’t deduct my student loan interest because I “make too much” money.. No kids, no business expenses, no medical expenses…

By: yeah drax does.

yeah drax does. — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 01:18:06 +0000

Dunno about the 47 percent, but the deduction for charitable donations is among the largest of the tax expenditures listed in the federal budget. Joint Committee on Taxation says so, and I agree.

Truth is, you swing the word subsidy around like a perjorative and now you are miffed that it came around and hit you in the back of the head. Face it, you’re on the dole like everyone else is, to some degree or another. Leech.

By: novasteve

novasteve — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 20:45:39 +0000

Oh okay then. So the 47% who don’t pay any federal income tax are getting a subsidy (exclude even the EIC)? Are non profits getting a “subsidy”? If someone deducts $10,000 due to charitable donations to Planned Parenthood, are they getting a subsidy?

You have no idea what the word means.

By: drax

drax — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 20:34:30 +0000

If Congress passes a law that says everyone has to pay 20% of their income in taxes, except for Novasteve, that’s a subsidy for Novasteve. You have money that the rest of us don’t even though we’re all paying for the same thing, so the other taxpayers are subsidizing your tax payment.

Yeah, it’s a subsidy.

By: drax

drax — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 20:17:19 +0000

Fine, so we’ll set up a program where people with mortgages get a check from HUD instead of a check from the IRS. Voila. Same difference. You pay less in taxes than someone else because of something you pay for? That’s a subsidy.

By: Concerned Citizen

Concerned Citizen — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 19:37:27 +0000

You couldn’t pass Econ 101 if you don’t know what a tax expenditure is. Government can spend money either directly or through tax expenditures. Both tax expenditures and government spending effect marginal tax rates. The question is how government allocates the money among society and whether the allocation corrects or causes market failure or markets distortions.

My point is that the government spends a lot of money on well-to-do people. Government spending on the homeless and people on welfare constitutes less than two percent of government spending. So don’t be so please don’t be quite upset that Arlington is working with VOLUNTEERS to try to help the homeless, who, for whatever reason, are some of the least fortunate people in society.

By: novasteve

novasteve — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 19:32:58 +0000

What’s with democrats calling letting someone keep more of their money being a “subsidy”? If I have a tax benefit that means I pay less, that doesn’t mean that someone else is paying my taxes, it means I’m keeping more of the money I earned. A subsidy is when someone else pays for your benefit. Ie if I got taxpayer money to actually pay for my mortgage, then I would be getting a subsidy. I think most of the complaints here about the homeless shelter is why would they put it in such an expensive area and building, and then harm the real estate values of those who live close by when they could have avoided this by locating it somewhere else?

By: Patrick

Patrick — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 19:22:09 +0000

“The government subsidizes….” You operate from a wrong premise. The government doesn’t subsizdize anything I do. There is no such thing as a tax expenditure only the government confiscating less money based on people participating in certain programs the government deems beneficial to society. The only thing disappointing is that other people actually operate from the same premise as you.