Property Taxes

Yanche wrote:I don't know how it might be different for tenants in Reading but in most areas of the country taxes or service fees accessed against property owners is passed on to the tenant in the form of higher rent. So it's not true that "only the land owner" pays. In fact depending on how the land owner has is rental property business structured he gets the advantage of offsetting the land tax/fee assessment as a deduction on his profit/loss calculation. The tenant gets no such benefit.

Perhaps what I should have said is the renter's portion is, on average, significantly less than home owners. There is also no provision for the actual burden placed on the system for an individual family. You pay the same whether or not you have no kids, 1 kid, or 20 kids. Seems a bit unfair to make childless people and retired folks pay the same tax and yes, I do have a school age child.

wlape,love ya guy,I happen to be retired w/ all kids grown--get Patterson on that one for me will ya

That's just it. Here in NYS you can't afford to stay in your home if you are retired. It's almost as bad in PA. I was paying $6,200 in property and school taxes there in 2006 and about $6,900 here in 2010 with STAR.

My Brother in-law has about 2.5 times the size of my house on 30 acres in Onondaga Co and pays about 2/3 what I do. Good for him but it just shows how weird the system here is.

wlape3 wrote:That's just it. Here in NYS you can't afford to stay in your home if you are retired. It's almost as bad in PA. I was paying $6,200 in property and school taxes there in 2006 and about $6,900 here in 2010 with STAR.

That's insane! I guess I won't complain. I'm paying $1,600 for 4.1 acres with a house and garage.

sterling40man wrote:

wlape3 wrote:That's just it. Here in NYS you can't afford to stay in your home if you are retired. It's almost as bad in PA. I was paying $6,200 in property and school taxes there in 2006 and about $6,900 here in 2010 with STAR.

That's insane! I guess I won't complain. I'm paying $1,600 for 4.1 acres with a house and garage.

But do you have city water, sewers, snow removal, trash pickup, paid FD, local PD, etc.?

And do you WANT to?

For 6 grand, you could have all that. We pay about half that here.

You all have it easy, I have 1800 sq feet, 2 car detatched garage on .48 ac. Town water & sewer that costs 140 every 3 mos. Vol fire dept. No garbage pickup, No kids. My home value has droped 80,000 dollars in 2 years, was just reaccested and the taxes will be 7,200 this year. 60% goes to schools and the rest goes to town, county and state. I have a little over 9 yrs to retire, I'am buying a motor home and live at Wal-mart.

Richard, someone agrees with you read what Grace has to say. So do I.
Ray

Oops http://www.timesherald.com/articles/201 ... 292174.txt

jpete wrote:But do you have city water, sewers, snow removal, trash pickup, paid FD, local PD, etc.?

And do you WANT to?
For 6 grand, you could have all that. We pay about half that here.

This is what I have in my town.

-My own well for water
-Town sewer for $320 per year
-Municipal snow removal on roads. 2 full time highway dept employees.
-Pay $12 per month for trash pick-up
-No PD
-Volunteer FD
-1Town Manager and 1 clerk/notary
-1 Middle/High School for 2 towns

Do I want to pay that much you ask? NO!!!!! I was just saying that it looks like I'm the lucky one here.

jpete wrote:

sterling40man wrote:

wlape3 wrote:That's just it. Here in NYS you can't afford to stay in your home if you are retired. It's almost as bad in PA. I was paying $6,200 in property and school taxes there in 2006 and about $6,900 here in 2010 with STAR.

That's insane! I guess I won't complain. I'm paying $1,600 for 4.1 acres with a house and garage.

But do you have city water, sewers, snow removal, trash pickup, paid FD, local PD, etc.?

And do you WANT to?

For 6 grand, you could have all that. We pay about half that here.

I do not have trash removal, sewer, or city water. I didn't have it in PA either. All those are extra. When I lived in NJ only the trash was included in my taxes. I paid extra for water and sewer. I actually had to pay twice for sewer; once to the county for the new sewage treatment plant they forced us to use and once to the township for the old sewage treatment plant.

In both PA and NY the local fire departments where I lived/live are all volunteer supported by a combination of state and local funds plus contributions by local residents. Same for ambulance services. Nothing is free and sometimes you have to pay for it more than once.

wlape3 wrote:In both PA and NY the local fire departments where I lived/live are all volunteer supported by a combination of state and local funds plus contributions by local residents. Same for ambulance services. Nothing is free and sometimes you have to pay for it more than once.

In my town our FD has an annual buget of $17,000. The town pays this through taxes. We've received federal grants for new equipment in the last 5 years. We also have fund raisers to pick up extra cash for budget shortfalls. Like I said earlier it's strictly a volunteer department and we receive $7.00 per hour for fire calls and trainings. We don't do it for the money. Last year I made a total of $185.

sterling40man wrote:

wlape3 wrote:In both PA and NY the local fire departments where I lived/live are all volunteer supported by a combination of state and local funds plus contributions by local residents. Same for ambulance services. Nothing is free and sometimes you have to pay for it more than once.

In my town our FD has an annual buget of $17,000. The town pays this through taxes. We've received federal grants for new equipment in the last 5 years. We also have fund raisers to pick up extra cash for budget shortfalls. Like I said earlier it's strictly a volunteer department and we receive $7.00 per hour for fire calls and trainings. We don't do it for the money. Last year I made a total of $185.

I wasn't critizing our local FD or PD. Mostly I was talking about services which are supposed to be paid for in existing levies but somehow generate extra fees. My NJ sewer tax was an example of this.

wlape3 wrote:I wasn't critizing our local FD or PD.

I know you weren't man. I was just saying how our FD runs is all.

I've got a little over 2.5 acres, a 160 year old house, run down barn/garage, a small shed & a greenhouse. Our roads get plowed/sanded, no trash pickup - gotta pay per year to dump at x-fer station on weekends. My neighbors have to yell & scream at town hall to get a street sweeper up here so we don't all wipe our bikes out. I weedwhack the street sides & dig out drainage ditches & clean out existing pipes - I don't even bother calling the town. They come up once a year with the brush hog & lay waste to all my wifes plants that grow into the street.

All this for $2,450/yr. ... and rises like clockwork by 2.5% every year. This year it will rise even higher due to a prop. 2.5% override.

The town I grew up in where my parents still live has become overrun with yuppie Boston transplants. They started demanding this, that & the other thing ... waaaah waaaah waaah like typical yuppies. Turned that nice blue collar town into an unaffordable, congested clone of a metro-Boston suburb. Due to all that whining & demanding from these spoiled jackoffs, my parents pay $4,000/year for .75 acres and 2 tool sheds. But they will have a brand new mega-high school that no one we know will attend. On top of a 3-story police station & similar sized fire station - all for 15,000 people. I'm all for police & fire, but you just have to see these places. It's as ridiculous as all the mansions around town now.