$7000 here thanks
It is just not in Texas, it is everywhere. Wht is happening is our elected officials think they are royalty.
Just another example of the communistic progressive taxation. Hardworking homeowners are getting the shaft because they work hard to get a home.
We own our home for 15 years, we paid $98K and it's been appraised for $135 heck where are those appraiser that will appraise my home for $500K send them to my home ASAP!!
It's all the same. State legislators cut income taxes, they make spending "cuts" by cutting state aid to cities and towns. Cities and towns respond by raising property taxes. No tax cut in the end, only a shift in taxes from people with more income than property to people with more property than income.
In the immortal words of Beavis and Butthead, "This sucks. Change it."
God bless Howard Jarvis.
If only everybody in the Houston area were as upset about their property taxes as they are about that new stupid towing ordinance, maybe we would get somewhere in this battle.
Everybody in Texas: please join CLOUT!
Check out http://www.ksevradio.com for listing of state reps..These are career politicians. Let's call them and remind them who they answer to.
Montgomery County Maryland... property assessments are being raised 69%. I would add however that it's to pay for shortfalls from Federal Government cutbacks. Therefore I consider it a good thing. When taxes are LOCAL you can fix it by a) moving away to a more reasonable county or b) changing the local government.
"There is a property tax crisis," says Myron Orfield, a property tax expert at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. "It's especially bad in states like New Jersey, Ohio, Connecticut, and Illinois, which are property-tax dependent."
Part of the problem lies in demographics and the rapid growth of exurban communities. Young couples who can't afford suburban homes have moved to "edge" communities further from the cities. Those are filled with children, and to educate them the communities have to jack up property taxes to build new schools and hire teachers.
"The property tax system accelerates the sprawl," Mr. Orfield says, "and communities are competing for the few [taxable] businesses."
http://news.minnesota.publicradio.org/features/200207/22_olsond_growth/
To sprawl or not to sprawl
By Dan Olson
Minnesota Public Radio
July 22, 2002
Finding room for nearly one million more Twin Cities residents is one of the controversial items on the Metropolitan Council's agenda this year. Projections show the region's population will grow by more than 900,000 people over the next 30 years. State Sen. Myron Orfield, DFL-Minneapolis, wants the Metropolitan Council to adopt a plan that will more tightly control the sprawl.
(snip)
In Florida we have Amendment 10, Save our Homes, which limits raises in property taxes of property with homestead exemption.
If you've lived in your home for awhile, it really pays off.
http://www.leepa.org/amendment_10.htm
I knew a person who paid more taxes annually that he originally paid for his small farm. This is the price for living too long in this land of the free and the home of the brave.
When you do your income taxes this year, notice how much your taxes have increased since last year.
Something will give sometime, maybe.
I would prefer a state wide property tax over the present system of a half dozen local taxing entities raising my property taxes each year. I get taxed by the following:
Harris County, Harris County Flood Control Dist, Harris County Dept. of Education , Port of Houston Authority , Harris County Hospital District , N Harris Montgomery Comm College, Emergency Service Dist, Emergency Service Dist #11
There are so many people voting to raise my taxes that I can't hold anyone accountable. ,If it were a State wide tax at least I could vote against my State Rep, Senator and the Governor.
"There is also concern the taxes could particularly hurt the home-buying chances of the young or civil servants such as firefighters"
why does crap like this have to be inserted into every article I read? Who cares about civil servants like firefighters?
There are some firefighters I have read about making over 100K a year. Life is rough when you work for the government! what is the true market value of firefighters and other civil servants??-- -I guarantee the government is paying over 100% more in wages and benefits than a private firm would have too pay to get the same quality of work.
That is huge, even by my standards. At any other point in my life, I probably would have been forced to sell the house.
This has never been a problem for me for a few reasons:
a. TheMidwest is not a "desireable" place to live for some unknown reason, though it's d@mn beautiful and has all the amenities a person could want, plus tons of lakes, streams, forests, shoreline and quiet meadows and hills to climb. Our property values don't boom and bust as they do in other parts of the USA. But please don't move here, LOL!
b. I've never bought more home than I could afford, and always factored in ALL costs of home ownership from a new roof, a replacement for the furnace, increased property taxes, etc. If you can't figure this stuff out, then just rent or live in your mother's basement until you're 40. Home ownership is not for wimps. ;)
c. I've bought and sold four homes now in the Midwest. Real Estate, as an investment, has always been berry, berry good to me. :)