Property Taxes

Damn guys--I had to go pull out my tax reciepts for this year--I guess Freetown is more free then I like to btch about---OK---8 acres that we claim w/ the house--200 yr old big farm house(3800 sq)--35x25 barn--30x24-- hay barn---25x16 equip. shed---private well & septic--Now, I get my Veteran deduction & my disability(Parkinsons) deduction--they knock $10,000 off the assesed value--my Town & County taxes were $773.34--that includes Fire & ambulance coverage--also covers if you want to wait 2 hrs for a county mounty or state trooper--it's quicker just to shoot at the perp.----School taxes/Library tax--we have what's called a Star-Basic exemption,which helps & everyone gets it as long as you own & live in your house--- anyway,school taxes were$327.75--I'm feeling pretty damn good after reading some of you guys posts here--that's how it is in Freetown OOOOOh,I won't get my disability discount this coming yr.,but I will get my Senior discount,not this yr but the next cause my B-Day is after March 1---that must mean my Parkinsons is CURED--Praise the Lord We also have a big re-assesment coming up this yr.--so,who knows where that'll put us

If you think the wealthy are entrenched now and the rest of the population is oppressed by it, just imagine what would happen if there was no tax on real property. Anyone recall feudalism?

Pay the tax and be glad you can pay it. Be glad you have a local school system and be glad you have public infrastructure.

mikeandgerry wrote:If you think the wealthy are entrenched now and the rest of the population is oppressed by it, just imagine what would happen if there was no tax on real property. Anyone recall feudalism?

Pay the tax and be glad you can pay it. Be glad you have a local school system and be glad you have public infrastructure.

I'm not talking about removing the tax burden, that would have to be shifted to something else. I'm talking about eliminating property taxes in favor of something else.

By removing the tax you now have very good incentive for people to want to purchase homes/lands, once paid for it's free and clear forever.

I think it's a good idea. A tax is a tax, no matter where the hell it's being charged ... but I'd sleep alot better knowing my property wouldn't be in jeopardy had I paid my mortgage off & ran into tough times.

For example, Phoenix AZ doesn't charge excise tax on automobile registration -- the registration costs are based on the value of the vehicle .... just like excise taxes are here in MA. So no matter if it's excise or reg, your still paying.

I'll bet property taxes are set up the way they are to ensure nobody will default on them. Sort of like extortion ...

With that said .... I wonder how many people would pay $6,000 to register their cars ..

Real property is finite and it is critical to the productive ability of this nation. In economic terms it is a factor of production; land, labor, capital, entrepreneurial talent. Substantial real property taxes provide an incentive to use, rather than sit on a property because there is a risk of losing the property to taxes.

If the taxpayer can pass (up to) two million dollars of wealth to their heirs free of income tax, then over a relatively short period of time family lines can accumulate that much wealth potentially locking up an economic resource and increasing the price of other lands. That limits the opportunity of the people to pursue happiness in a free economy. It promotes the type of feudal arrangements that were so oppressive in Europe. In effect, corporations could set up expense-free land trusts and effectively hold the people ransom.

Merely shifting the tax burden to some other tax source may produce the same revenues but may not free up factors of production for the benefit of the nation.

If having peace of mind regarding your domicile is your aim, you could simply allow those who are of a certain age and retired or permanently disabled to avoid real property taxes on their single home property until their demise.

Getting anything done on property tax relief here in Pa has been talked about by the pollys for years. I might as well whip a dead horse and expect it to get up and win the Triple Crown. I have no hope for tax relief or fairness,as a matter of fact I was "expensed out "of my home of 32 years by an out of control school board that thinks a 23 million dollar update on a high school is normal maintenance.Then they leveled the middle school and started from scratch.They rented another complete building in a neighboring district during construction. Very bitter over taxes that only go in one direction.It is getting to the breaking point. Mike

Can`t dissagree on that Mike, most if not all school boards in Pa. have become little kingdoms totally out of touch with reality. Then to boot on top of that you have the local, county & state tax. When we were allowed to vote on the gambling it was under the pretext of lowering school taxes & it might have for a few that are related to someone or qualify for some kind of secret unobtainable formula but as far as I know school taxes as all taxes only go one way.

<bumper sticker> "If you think education is expensive....try ignorance!"

I'm lucky to live in a small, smart town. Taxes are reasonable. Next door to me are "The twin cities" (Bangor & Brewer). They both have stupid high taxes, almost double what we pay here.

Elderly losing their homes.... we're talking of making a change here in town so that no one ever has to leave their home because of taxes. It'll be interesting to see if it works out. It goes something like this: If you are of retirement age and have lived in your home for over 10 years, you can stop paying property taxes if you wish. You still owe the taxes, you just don't pay them. They pile up, with interest, and when you die, the town gets paid. Your heirs must pay whats due, or give the house to the town. The heirs can pay whats due and keep the house, or sell it, pay the taxes and keep what's left over, or they can give the house to the town. If they give the house to the town, no cash changes hands. The town accepts the house & property as full payment.

Sounds like a good idea Freddy. One thing that popped into my head was reverse mortgages. That could get interesting in a hurry.

The school taxes really get me mad. Since 1992 I have lived in this county and watched the school budget go from $72M in 1995 to $182M last year. The president of the county commissioners was a former school district superintendent and he and the other commissioners rubber stamped the school budget requests. A lot of that money went to administrative positions, not teaching positions to lessen class sizes. He retired and this year the recently retired school district super, you guessed it, ran for commissioner. I attended one of the debates where we were allowed to ask questions and I stuck him with a couple questions related to the out of control spending in the school system giving specific examples. The song and dance was impressive but not surprisingly there was no substance to his answers. I was limited to my two questions so others could have a chance and they thankfully piled on with more questions along the same subject! I'd like to think I had a small part in him losing the election badly. His loss was termed a surprise by the local paper because his opponent did not have the name recognition and was outspent and she is not in the popular D party in this area.

State government endorsed reverse mortgage programs exit in Maryland too. My Lions Club helped a retired couple who owned their home upgrade. Believe it or not but it was a home without running water or toilet/bathing facilities. Best the health department could determine it was the only home in the county without running water. Contractors that looked at the job quickly determined it would be cheaper to build new rather than upgrade the existing home. So that's what was done, new well, septic and small one story home. The married couple had serious heath issues too and were so happy with the result. Lots of paperwork, grant applications, looking for possible heirs, etc. That's what we Lions did, acted like a project manager. Both residents are now gone, the house sold and the state's lien paid off.