What do your monthly bills total?

[11B4V]

I do, an 8 y/o.

Gotcha. Cool

I was just wondering how personal your experiences and decisions were re: your local public school system.

No prob. I'm sure there are good school systems out there.

I went to the 16 y/o parent/teacher conference. A 10 minute round robin type of bullshit. Which chapped my hide right out of the gate.

We sit down and the Hippy asks the 16 y/o, "Well XXXXX how do you think you been doing so far?"

I stop the whole process and tell the teacher, I dont want to hear from the 16 y/o on how she's doing. I want to hear it from you..teacher, on how she's doing. The Hippy then spewed some shit about that's the way we do it here.

I told the hippy, "Not for my 10 minutes".

[Malthus]

Is there some kind of massive homestead exemption up there?

I don't know the exact details as I was 13 when we left. At the time that area was an Improvement District rather than a Municipal District. A Municipal District in Alberta is sort of similar to a county in the US although they have counties as well. An Improvement District means the population was low enough/sparse enough that it could not support its own infrastructure etc, so the province handled much of that and levied the property taxes at a low rate. I believe the Northern Residence reduction applied to property taxes and there may have been other exemptions related to underdeveloped areas.

In addition it was "agricultural land" which taxes at a lower rate than, say, residential. In reality, when they bought it it was wooded muskeg that wasn't even good for commercial logging. By the time we left it had all been drained and about half of it was cleared with about half of that in cultivation.

IIRC you'd also be getting a discount since you're doing all those improvements to the land.

If you work it right, you can pay essentially no tax right here in good old southern Ontario. 

My dad owns a bunch of "significant" wetlands and the rest is under a forestry management plan, he files a bunch of papers every year, and so he pays essentially no tax on his 100 acres in Oro-Medonte (just north of Barrie, Ontario). Mind you, he works pretty hard on his forestry management - he takes that stuff seriously, keeps track of every tree like some sort of human ent. 

[Malthus]

I do, an 8 y/o.

Gotcha. Cool

I was just wondering how personal your experiences and decisions were re: your local public school system.

No prob. I'm sure there are good school systems out there.

I went to the 16 y/o parent/teacher conference. A 10 minute round robin type of bullshit. Which chapped my hide right out of the gate.

We sit down and the Hippy asks the 16 y/o, "Well XXXXX how do you think you been doing so far?"

I stop the whole process and tell the teacher, I dont want to hear from the 16 y/o on how she's doing. I want to hear it from you..teacher, on how she's doing. The Hippy then spewed some shit about that's the way we do it here.

I told the hippy, "Not for my 10 minutes".

Interesting. At what point did you draw your gun? 

[11B4V]

I do, an 8 y/o.

Gotcha. Cool

I was just wondering how personal your experiences and decisions were re: your local public school system.

No prob. I'm sure there are good school systems out there.

I went to the 16 y/o parent/teacher conference. A 10 minute round robin type of bullshit. Which chapped my hide right out of the gate.

We sit down and the Hippy asks the 16 y/o, "Well XXXXX how do you think you been doing so far?"

I stop the whole process and tell the teacher, I dont want to hear from the 16 y/o on how she's doing. I want to hear it from you..teacher, on how she's doing. The Hippy then spewed some shit about that's the way we do it here.

I told the hippy, "Not for my 10 minutes".

Interesting. At what point did you draw your gun? 

Why would I be carrying on school grounds? Even off duty? 

[katmai]

No mortgage or car payment means less than $1000 a month.

[Malthus]

Why would I be carrying on school grounds? Even off duty? 

Leaving yourself defenseless against hippies? 

[Ed Anger]

I would have ice picked that teacher's tires.

[MadBurgerMaker]

Somewhere between $2700 and $3000. 

E:  Wait.  I forgot my wife's car payment.  Damn.  Need cheaper cars.

[MadImmortalMan]

I'm still the only one over 4k? I call BS.

[Ed Anger]

I'm still the only one over 4k? I call BS.

I don't vote in polls.

[The Brain]

I'm still the only one over 4k? I call BS.

I don't vote in polls.

Do you require assistance? 

[Sheilbh]

I'd guess around 1400-1500 fixed costs a month. So that's my rent, council tax, TV license, transport and utilities.

[merithyn]

council tax, TV license

Those are the taxes I was talking about. Thanks, Sheilbh!

[Sheilbh]

I thought most of the Americans seemed to be paying a lot on cable and phone contracts in the other thread. I'm sure something's not right here

[katmai]

I'm still the only one over 4k? I call BS.

That's a lot o fucking money dude. Even with mortgage and new car i'd be below $2500