our property tax doubled this last year from the year before (almost 5K this year!!) and so did our home owners’ insurance. it was sickening.
$5K? That is 6 months for me. Ugghhh!!
My property tax went up the 3% limit and insurance went up about 10%.
People living on the coast had it much worse but then their risk and value is much higher.
I know that in Polk County where I lived, revenues went way, way up and the local governments managed to spend every penny of it. Now they claim that if some rationality is applied to the property and other taxes, oh no! they will have to cut essential services to......the children, minorities, take your pick.
The county quadrupled “impact” fees on new homes and in doing so have planted a solid blow to the groin of struggling builders. It’s become more practical to buy an existing home. The irony is that the county commissioners are all republicans who were voted into office because of democrats that raised taxes over the objections of the voters. More proof that party affiliation means a lot less at the local level.
Always the one to beat the dead horse, I'll reiterate!
Your time would be better spent reforming the CURRENCY system of the U.S. Your taxes seem to be going up, but they are not---notice everything else, including GOLD, is going up as well. That means the currency is going DOWN. Gold, taxes, everything commodity based, is closer to constant, and measured in gold, other commoditites will seem constant. Measured in gold, the currency is going down.
You are paying more nominal dollars in taxes, but in real dollars or inflation adjusted dollars, you are paying the same tax. The problem is that you are not being paid more nominal dollars at work, rather you are being paid the same nominal dollars but less in real or inflation adjusted dollars. You feel squeezed by the tax guy and you are really being squeezed by your employer who should inflation adjust your salary. Though, if you manage to secure a "pay increase," don't think you are wealthier; you are not. The nominal increase would merely bring you even with what you were making in real terms before, and equalize you back to your ability to pay the tax which is the same in real terms.
This is what we get for our collective ignorance of Constitutional Law, specifically, Article 1, Section 10, Clause 1. And this is what we get for allowing Congress to delegate the monetary power to the Federal Reserve, neiter Federal nor do they have any reserves, a consortium of private banks.
Instead of gold and silver as an interest-free lien-free wholly owned national asset of the U.S. circulating as money, legal tender interest-bearing-debt-based currency borrowed from the central bank backed only by the "economy of the U.S." (and associated taxing power) is our money base, all borrowed, all on the books as debt, all earning interest to the benefit of the bank owners, paid by us.
Also paid by us is the cost of inflation, an invisible tax, the effect of which is being discussed in this thread. The world is awash in money, yet, for some reason, everyone (except the minority rich ruling classes) seems to be struggling to "keep up with the cost of living." Inflation is why. Our currency is why. The Federal Reserve is why. Do we have to have a central bank? Panama has no central bank and is doing fine. Bermuda has no IRS or income tax and is doing fine.
Having a "fairtax" would be great, but without a fair currency, it will be all for naught, because even if you change the way the tax is paid, without currency reform you don't change the way we all silently fall deeper into national debt slavery.
We must get out of debt. We ought to go back to silver and gold as per the Constitution. If because of whatever prejudices you have, you don't want silver and gold, then the currency can be unconnected with silver and gold, but at the same time it must not be borrowed (and certainly no interest attached).
Fail to do these things and your children and grandchildren will be running back and forth like you are now, fussing about their "high cost of living" and the "high taxes," not having any idea what to do to fix it. My grand kids will be blogging at yours, still saying "Enough, already! Fix the currency!" By that time a loaf of bread will cost $150.00 and everyone will make a million dollars a year, pay $500,000 in taxes, society will just keep adding zeros to every price, every salary, every tax, and nothing will have changed.