Posted on 10/09/2011 11:37:54 AM PDT by Borges
Property taxes should be illegal. Americans either own their land, houses or real property or they don’t. Fees for water, sewage, trash collection, etc. I have no problem with.
Of course, raking in the out-of-control spending would never cross their minds.
Property taxes have been around forever.
This article is problematic in that it suggests that the tax should be based upon “ability” to pay.
I own a small plot of land in rural America. If the woods ever catch on fire, the county fire department has to put it out. The county maintains the road by it. Either the county has to do that all for free or hit me with a property tax. We can quibble about the level, but I can’t see a good conservative argument for getting rid of the tax altogether.
Not really. They just need to lower some of the 6-figure salary's in school districts, stop free lunches, and other associated nonsense.
I live in Cook County and just received my property tax bill. The taxes increased 10% even though the property value dropped 10%. We do have an appeals process and I’ll weigh that option.
As for many people not receiving their homeowner’s exemption applications, I agree - from what I’ve heard from others, the mailing was sporadic at best.
Having said all that, I completely disagree with the statements at the end of the article “Taxes ought to be based on a persons ability to pay. The system ought to be comprehensible to the people who are taxed”. Property taxes are based on value NOT the income of the occupants. There is a discount for seniors and low-income seniors. “Comprehensible to the people who are taxed” sounds exactly like another form of redistribution of wealth, allowing for lower taxes for the poorer homeowners at the expense of higher taxes to the wealthier homeowners.
Yup. From the Noble class - in this case, the new nobility, government employees who tell you either pay for their existence or be jackhammered off your property.
No different then the British Feudalist system the American settlers tried to overthrow 235 years ago.
Time to end the property tax. We can defend our own property with excise taxes to pay for police and military protection to augment citizen volunteers.
Property taxes are a rental you pay the taxing body for the privilege of living in your home. Actually, your home doesn’t actually belong to you. Try NOT paying your property taxes. You will end up standing by while the taxing body auctions your home for the balance of your taxes; (read:rental).
Most of the "services" you mention were previously done by volunteer groups or on a user fee basis. Private roads were common in the West; read the history of the Oregon Trail or any of the stage roads, not to mention the railroads.
The property tax is now used as an extortion gig by the Democratic Party and its allies in the public employee unions. You pay exorbitant rates for lifelong "employment" schemes for indolent garbage seeking comfy, safe jobs that have little real value providing almost no real services, but with gigantic pensions, perks, and minimal effort associated with them. They pay vigorish to Dim party hacks who make sure the patronage results in more thugs being elected.
All of it can be and was done better and cheaper over a century ago before the self appointed aristocracy known as Public Employees figured out that they could re-impose feudalism.
Yep. That’s why it is called Real Estate (Royal Estate), in that all property belonged to the king, and had to be paid for though taxes, crops, military service, etc.
How much you spend for your house should be based on ability to pay. If you don't want to pay for services such as libraries and fire departments, move to a place without libraries and fire departments. You can even find places with essentially no police protection, if you don't want to pay for that.
And we should all understand the term “fee simple”
Do you think we should tax the rich? Maybe corporations?
When I own property I get benefits from the city - and I pay for those... The problem comes when liberal elites run the city and decide to add on tax paid perks to give money to their friends and liberal causes - non-profits and all...
I own two homes. One is a Summer home and the other is my regular residence. I can only vote in one district. I am unable to vote on local tax issues in the district where my Summer home is.
I understand all about voting twice on state or federal issues, but I am being taxed on property I own in a town where I can’t vote on local issues.
I can understand reasonable local municipal taxes on property. What I am against is local SCHOOL taxes on property.
School taxes should be part of the income tax structure of the state so it is spread out more equitably.
You’ve got people in danger of losing their houses over school taxes where I live. They’re insane.
Comprehensible to the people who are taxed sounds exactly like another form of redistribution of wealth, allowing for lower taxes for the poorer homeowners at the expense of higher taxes to the wealthier homeowners.
I was a homeowner in Cook County during the '80s. I never did understand how my property tax bill was calculated. I am a computer programmer, and never could come up with an algorithm that would generate the same number as the one on my tax bill. Indeed, my calculated numbers were always significantly lower than the ones on my tax bills, no matter how I fudge the rounding rules. I just called the difference the "Daley tax" and attributed the difference to Illinois windage by the people preparing the bill.
So I believe that the intent of the word "comprehensible" is the dictionary definition: "capable of being comprehended; intelligable". Knowing what is going on doesn't have anything to do with redistribution.
A big problem is to base my taxes on what my neighbor sells his house for. If he received a big amount for selling his house why should my taxes be increased. This is like if he received a big salary increase, my income taxes should go up. Taxes should be on my purchase price not on a reappraisal based on someone else’s price.
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