[Question Liberal Authority]

property taxes are a direct violation of any sense of individual property ownership.

Part of the reason my property is worth owning is that it has access to running water, sanitation, paved roads, decent schools, garbage collection, fire fighters, police, etc. Some or all of these services are provided by the government, and most are funded by some sort of tax / user fee. I don't begrudge them that money so long as it's well spent.

Are postage stamps a direct violation of your right to mail a letter?

[eeevil conservative]

uhm— I can send a letter without the post office, for one- or choose not to send a letter....

for two— paying for a service that a local government provides is one thing...but it is a government service to own property....

A consumption tax to pay for services is the way to go- not the gov’t taxing personal property ownership....

[perfect_rovian_storm]

I’d rather pay for those services (the ones that I use) themselves than have a perpetual tax on the property that I supposedly own.

Before my wife and I settled on moving south, we were looking at paying over $900 a month just in property taxes for a home in upstate NY. So, even after I paid the mortgage completely off, I was stuck with at $900 bill that amounted to A RENT BILL FROM THE STATE for my property. If I don’t pay, it isn’t that ‘services’ get shut off. I can’t cut the bill down by deciding to use a different provider for service. No, they just kick me out and take the land that I supposedly own.

This is an affront to property rights and private property is essential in a free society.

Medina is a loon, but she’s dead on when it comes to property taxes.

[Lorianne]

Those services should be based on the value/cost of those services, not an arbitrarily “appraised” value of your home.

Why does anyone have the right to ‘appraise’ the value of your home, unless you are trying to sell it to them?

Also, now that property values have fallen, are cities and counties going to ‘appraise’ your property downward?

No. First you must ‘petition’ the government entity to even iniate the process of re-appraisal. S

Secondly, none that I have heard of are planning to re-assess values based on new, lower ‘values’ of property. Many are, however, trying to circumvent that whole argument by raising tax RATES.