where would your taxes be better spent?

[kko]

on facebook please go to taylor morris community support page and then answer my question.
Should our taxes go more on our vets or to the prisons to feed and house and clothe death row inmates like charles manson? I just want to know why people like taylor have to struggle after fighting for us while scum like manson is getting rich in prison? I say get rid of the death row inmates and start focusing on our wounded and their families. They are the ones we need to feed and shelter and clothe. don't you agree?

[tillan2k]

returning to tax payer

[My Grain]

Leaving enough money at the end of the week so people like myself can afford to rent a room on a 40-50 hour week instead of having to do a 24/7 live in carer job to keep a roof over my head and so therefore being effectively homeless

[JBKS_10]

Giving it back to the people who are working but finding it hard right now....who have paid into the system....not to any tom dick or harry who comes here and ...help our soldiers who have had their limbs blown of fighting wars that shouldnt be....I could give you a list of where our taxes would be better spent.....

[Susan S]

The death penalty costs much more than life in prison. Study after study has found that the death penalty is much more expensive than life in prison. Since the stakes are so high, the process is far more complex than for any other kind of criminal case. The largest costs come at the pre-trial and trial stages. The tremendous expenses in a death penalty case apply whether or not the defendant is convicted, let alone sentenced to death.

Examples- trial costs (death penalty and non death penalty cases, California):

People v. Scott Peterson, Death Penalty Trial
$3.2 Million Total
People v. Rex Allen Krebs Death Penalty Trial
$2.8 Million Total
People v. Cary Stayner, Death Penalty Trial
$2.368 Million Total
People v. Robert Wigley, Non-Death Penalty Trial
$454,000 Total
This data is for cases where the best records have been kept.

Some factors:
• more pre-trial time will be needed to prepare: cases typically take a year to come to trial
• more pre-trial motions filed and answered
• more experts will be hired
• twice as many attorneys will be appointed for the defense, and a comparable team for the prosecution
• jurors must be individually quizzed on their views about the death penalty, and they are more likely to be sequestered
• two trials instead of one will be conducted: one for guilt and one for punishment
• the trial will be longer: a cost study at Duke University estimated that death penalty trials take 3 to 5 times longer than typical murder trials

The numbers vary from state to state, but they all point in the same direction. From a fairly typical state study of the costs of the death penalty:
“The study counted death penalty case costs through to execution and found that the median death penalty case costs $1.26 million. Non-death penalty cases were counted through to the end of incarceration and were found to have a median cost of $740,000. For death penalty cases, the pre-trial and trial level expenses were the most expensive part, 49% of the total cost. The investigation costs for death-sentence cases were about 3 times greater than for non-death cases. The trial costs for death cases were about 16 times greater than for non-death cases ($508,000 for death case; $32,000 for non-death case).” (Kansas: Performance Audit Report: Costs Incurred for Death Penalty Cases: A K-GOAL Audit of the Department of Corrections)

[Ree 9]

ON ME ! But really we need taxes to pay for everything as there is only SO MUCH money around and it doesn't really matter who's in or who's out the fact is the the pot stays the same and it ALL ON how we shair the money POT. It still takes so much to pay for things the same as yesterday.

[Judy]

Prisoners do need to be cut, they are in PRISON, we did not put them there, they are in there for punishment, but they have everything they need.
Help our vets.
Welfare in this country should be cut, give that to our vets. Our vets fought this ugly war, while welfare leaches are over here making more babies for our money, I say give it to the vets.
We should let the people know in this country, pass it, stating as of June 2013 NO MORE WELFARE watch how fast birth rates drop.
We should also post on our hospitals, as of June 2013, you are cut off, do not enter this hospital, you do not pay your bills, resulting in staff being cut, go home, or have the baby in your car. I don't care, 4 of my friends that went to school busted their humps to work in the hospitals down there, they lost their jobs, so many illegals coming in, giving birth and of course not paying.
Spend the money we cut of the career welfare people, to protect our borders...keep out the illegals.