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I read a story about 30 years ago about some Colorado town that built up a huge debt. Apparently the taxes got so high that a lot of people left, leaving a smaller pool of taxpayers among which to spread out the debt, resulting in property taxes that were comical. Comical as in so high that you paid the value of your home, just in property taxes, over a year or two - or something like that.

I was reading about it because it had already became a financial disaster, which is why it was an interesting story. People forget that the tax payers really ARE on the hook for any debt their government incurs. Eventually it can hit them where they live. The renters are the first to move away. :)

People forget that the tax payers really ARE on the hook for any debt their government incurs.

Long story short...in Flint, Michigan, in the late 90's, the tallest building in town, a 13-story former bank headquarters, became empty when the bank was merged. It fell into disrepair and became tax delinquent. A speculator bought it at auction for $500,000. He made no repairs, and a few years later streets in the area had to be closed when large chunks of concrete began falling from the upper floors.

The city took action and took the building by eminent domain. They paid the owner $500,000. "Time out!", he said, "you have me tax assessed at $7 million!" He sued, and the Michigan Supreme Court eventually ordered the City of Flint to pay him $7 million, which they did not have.

The pool of taxpayers, which had shrunken dramatically over that time, got a second property tax bill for the Genesee Towers Assessment to pay off that judgment. The building was finally imploded two years ago. Double your taxes for a pile of rubble.