The problem appears to be that cycle of the economy is higher taxes to pay for higher costs. Now before you storm the Bastille, higher taxes appear to be off the table for now. However Freeport just was reported to be looking at a 9% increase in taxes.
This could be coming at you very soon. There is only so much magic going around. Think three-card monte… who’s got the revenue, who’s got the revenue?
Well how do we solve this Gordian knot? What has to give and how did this happen? Well it appears that tax bases have been shrinking and salaries keep going up. Now salaries going up is going to be a given and continuous. Revenue bases shrinking aren’t going away either, that is traditional bases. What has to change, in my humble opinion is how we actually generate revenue.
The biggest generator of revenue today is actually technology. Apple, Inc. generated just 1 billion less than ExxonMobil last year. Instagram was purchased for $1 billion USD. Facebook, Google and LinkedIn just IPOed and have valuations higher than most producers of physical products. The question is should school districts be keeping the same model just refocusing on different revenue streams?
Think about possibly tapping into the world of social commerce. How can this be done? Well just think about it. Students and families are on diverse forms of social media and generating those valuations. How about building a social network that actually funds the schools that create such a network. It is called revenue sharing and it is possible. Take a look at a beta prototype site currently running and see what you think. Can this solve the problem?
Full disclosure here – I built it and own it but it shares revenue with school districts at 70% of revenue after production expenses. There is no cost to schools, it is free - period. I’ll say it again – it is free this is not sold to schools it simply generates revenue that it shares with each school district and can be customized to look like the district – colors and icons.
Would like to hear your opinion. Honorscholar.com
i am not talking about the education process i am talking about funding the education process. teaching occurs between the student and teacher - however that is done. I am talking about using a resource that currently is generated by the community to fund the needs of the community. If the district wishes to buy chalk and boards whatever - to subsidize teachers or to add staff - not my business I just want to use social commerce to help fund school budgets - i pay taxes here as well and my kids are well past k-12. just like to see the money go to the schools not outside sources.
It is a digital economy now, time we embraced that new economy and learned to work with it to go forward. Elimination is a slippery slope towards where? Again in my opinion.
Please take a look - see article for link.
I am doing this at 70% to schools - after production costs. The 30% goes to build the next school site. Once that is finished the 30% goes specifically to a student scholarship fund. My opinion stop giving the funding to FB, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram... get it?
And why is that you ask? For the last 45 years we in NY state have rule and regulated much of upstate out of business when it came to industry. So Long Island has been making up their funding every since. Solution? Start slashing all those poverty creating NY business regulations and consider fracking. ( fracking brings in over a billion in tax revenue in Pa)
The overall goal is to change the thinking from elimination and finite streams of revenue to streams of revenue that grow and are self-sustaining. Social commerce is growing at leaps and bounds and sustains itself. It is just in its infancy and is a driving economic force that can be implemented at any level, local, state and global. Cutting salaries and tapping into a new source of finite energy for sale has an endpoint. We need to think of solutions that expand over time not contract and ultimately fail. Please see my follow up post on social commerce from a local business person. http://huntington.patch.com/blog_posts/proving-the-power-of-social-commerce
Second I have been an academic living on Long Island for 25 years (one income for most of those years) and honestly I do not know what it is to not work summers or vacations or to come home at 3:00 and be finished. My father had a saying "if your hands are cold I will buy you gloves but for God's sake son get them out of your pockets because we have work to do"... I believe words to live by.