There are many things I never considered when I was voting straight ticket Republican without researching properly, such as how our state and federal taxes are spent. Most importantly, all of the ways a good chunk of those dollars could help us all, not just a select few who may choose to take advantage of the system like we hear so often as a reason to dump social programs.
Before you read on or make a face of disgust, I invite you to consider the many ways large corporations take advantage of us and how they often cost each of us more money in taxes because they need 9+ figure incomes for a few people. Large companies often use loopholes to take advantage of those of us who make less than a million dollars a year.
Yes, there will always be people who cheat the system and it's annoying and unfair, but let's keep in mind how we can all have better qualities of life by offering better services for all.
Here are the current social programs that we all can benefit from.
FEDERAL (from Treasury.gov / HHS.gov):
Social Security (I pay for yours and mine, you pay for yours and mine)
Programs for seniors and people with disabilities
Food, drug, and medical safety
Medicare, Medicaid, CHIP, Health Insurance Marketplace
Military Equipment and personnel (including Veteran benefits, thank YOU!)
Highway maintenance
Public health emergency response and preparedness
Education, training, employment, social services.
Foster care/adoption
Recent PPP Loans/forgiveness (local BVille businesses took out hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars of these loans and were forgiven; BW got less than $17k [thank you!])
There are more, but this seems like a great place to start.
INDIANA STATE TAXES
(from IN.gov):
Road improvements
Public Parks
Public Schools/education
Public Libraries
Health and Human Services
Public Safety
Economic Development
Conservation/Environment
Clean air/water
Legal Services
Veterans (THANK YOU!)
SCORE/SBA Services (I have used both in my business so thank you for that too!)
As with the federal taxes stated, there are many more things our state taxes help fund but these are the ones that affect the bulk of the population and that you and I can both benefit from as well as our neighbors!