As Ken Dryden correctly points out, if you live in one state and work in
another, you pay state income taxes in both.  I live in Georgia, so am
already paying state income tax; if Tennessee implements one, I will pay
more (I have been in this situation before--the way this works with most
states, I wouldn't be paying the sum of the two, but would be paying more
than Georgia tax, which is already considerable).

As to unions, before I came here, I worked for 7 years for the Army, and was
in the union (which was affiliated with AFL-CIO, I believe).  The  problem
there is that a union has no power unless it can, and will, strike.  The
federal employees union could not, and so was essentially powerless.  Before
we head down a union road, ask yourself if you would be willing to strike,
walking out on students who had paid their fees in good faith and were
depending on you.  Without that, a union would have no real bargaining
power.

I was talking one day to another professor who was (very  reasonably, in his
case) complaining about new hires being paid more than he.  He said,
"Claire, why do we put up with this?  We don't get paid enough, and we work
hard, and we don't get any respect..."  When I said, "Because you love it?"
he said, "Well, there is that."  I view teaching not as a job, but as a
calling which I cannot ignore;  I know that many of you feel the same way.
So though we'd all like to be paid more, could we really walk out on our
students?

Claire McCullough



-----Original Message-----
From: UTC Staff E-Mail List [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of
Ken Dryden
Sent: Friday, April 27, 2001 9:13 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [UTCSTAFF] Taxes and Florida


As a native of Florida and a visitor a couple of times a year (my mother
still lives there), I'm aware of the hefty intangible tax that residents
have to pay on their cash on hand, stocks and
bonds once a year. Also gas prices in Gainesville
are always higher than Chattanooga's every time I
visit. Don't fail to consider the high property taxes,
too.

Dr. Dumas hit the nail on the head regarding the
endless leaky bucket of TennCare. Until there are
reforms like Sen. Fowler suggested (don't hold
your breath waiting for them to happen internally)
we will always be struggling to fund this program.
TennCare needs a system to verify eligibility and
reimbursements should be no more than typical
programs in the private sector. Remember that state income taxes never go
down once implemented, my wife is gouged by Georgia to the tune of 6%
although we live in Tennessee
and get NO BENEFITS from the state other than
her salary and insurance. Georgia is always looking to cut any tax except
the income tax because out of state residents who pay it can't vote.

As far as unions go, they are a double-edged sword. How long would it be
before leaders start drifting away from their main mission of collective
bargaining and end up funding political movements that don't have a darn
thing to do
with pay and benefits? You're welcome to explore
unions, but beware of the dark side, too.

Ken Dryden

----- Original Message -----
From: "sbenkert" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, April 26, 2001 11:02 PM
Subject: [UTCSTAFF] Taxes and Florida


> Being a Floridian and a graduate of wonderful USF I can attest that Joe is
> correct. However, Florida has fully 13 times the tourism Tennessee has and
we
> tax the snot out of them. We have bed taxes and dinner taxes and rental
taxes.
> We hit you everyway we can to keep from paying them ourselves. However,
> Floridians were taken for a ride on the lottery much the same way GA was
as
> explained in the paper several weeks ago. We were told the money was to be
> spent on education. and it was...to some extent....what they did was take
the
> regularly budgeted money away and fund edu from the lottery first making
up
> the difference from government spending. In fact..the lottery made little
> difference and like TN, FL is constantly looking for new ways to tax.
Further,
> if TN keeps exploiting its natural resources (we all know Gatlinburg is
now an
> unholy mess and an eyesore) no one will want to come here anyway and then
> taxes will go up again. Like I said before...the TN system does not work,
> hasn't worked, and won't work. By the way...the disparity between school
> systems is terrible in Florida. And in most districts the average teacher
> makes less than TN. I seriously looked again when I left Xavier as I was
> thinking of moving back home. But...that was one reason I choose to leave
FL
> and teach in VA in the first place. We were so short of teachers my senior
> year that we were advertising for them on billboards across the nation
with
> slogans like "Teaching is HOT in Florida." Sad, sad, sad. Find a better
state
> than FLorida to compare yourself to. From someone who has been in the
> system...don't believe everything you hear.