They are not meaningless. If a person is retired, and in their house for years, they are still fixed income, even though the asset increased in value. They can't sell part of the house, to keep up with what is now $15,000 tax hit which was $7,000 just six years ago. Nor should they be forced to move away, simply because the legislators are pigs, and revenues are never enough.
I fully agree, the elderly are still punished. The tax breaks for the retired are to little. I believe in securing your own future but some times it is not at hand for the family man that worked his whole life to no longer afford a house he has paid for in full due to property tax.
BTW, there are some states where your property taxes don’t go up at all...ever. You pay the same amount per year the day you bought the house...even if you own it for 75 years. But if you sell it then the new owners pay the current tax amount. I think california is one of those states, but I could be wrong.
This is a good idea, but keep in mind that the tax rates will need to be higher to compensate for all the old people getting off cheap.
That’s exactly what happened in Maplewood a few years back - the nice side of town got $10-18K INCREASES. Lots of houses > $25k yearly. It cleared it out within 2 years. It’s now all NY’ers.