Tax on any kind of property should be illegal. Tax it at the sale if you must, but I have never seen a tax repealed or a tax that all politicians didn't like

Do you expect the Fire Department/Police Department to only respond the year you bought your house?  Do you plan to only drive on the subdivision roads, go to the library, send you kids to school, etc. only the year you bought your house?  TANSTAAFS..

I think that IS my point. I'm on a city council. Need new a new dump truck, raise everybody's taxes a couple mils. Ta Da !!

I should not expect those that worked hard enough to earn enough money buy a home to have to pay for everyone else that did not (which is usually the majority in most areas) so the Fire Department/Police Department to respond to them, so they can drive on upkept roads, so they can go to the library, and they can send their kids to school.

Property taxes need to be abolished and a local tax put in its place so everyone pays their fair share.

Jahdai42 wrote:



At least the City of Fairfax is independent of Fairfax County, so you only pay taxes to one authority. I live in the Town of Vienna, which is an incorporated town within Fairfax County, so I pay real estate taxes to both the County and the Town. My combined bill totals well over $6,000 a year.

Those town taxes provide additional services, which are not generally available to county residents. For example, the town picks up the trash, so we don't have to pay a private contractor. The town has its own police department, so police response times are faster than in the surrounding county.

      This was during the time when housing values were way down!  But the taxes still went up!

Just rent.  

The taxes on raw land are pretty minimal.  Most of the tax base is on improvements (house, utilities, etc) and in theory was used to make the town/city better for all..schools, roads, lights, sewers, utilities.  I bet your taxes in county areas of Alaska would be minimal.

Elect a city council and/or county commission who will commit to a budget based on a set millage rate and add or cut services as property values go up or down.  Property values fall?  RIF police and fire, end garbage pickup, defer road repair, etc.

Taxes go up because people demand more services.   Local elections are usually won on a surprising small percentage of votes.   You would need very few votes to overturn a simple majority of seats.

Now imagine you have a vacation house also, not only do you get to pay taxes on it you don't get to vote in the local election on those taxes. So I just call it Super Fucked Tax.

This part OP. This part.

A.W.D.

These things aren't free. 

My taxes go to a few schools.


One that's not even in my district, though I'm less than a mile from its district.

Where does your mom live in NJ?

Living in Colorado, I never had to factor property taxes with a home purchase.  The taxes were reasonable; I paid just under $2k for a 4 bd/3ba 2400 sq ft home.  The housing market in Colorado is not cheap but we did have state income tax, which I preferred.

When we moved to Texas, we had to be very careful about our home purchase as the property taxes are ridiculous.  This is my current 2017 tax rate on a 3 bd/4.5 bath 3000 sq ft home:

CAD  APPRAISAL DISTRICT                 $0.00    
CML  CITY OF MCALLEN 0.476300                $1,547.36    
DR1  DRAINAGE DISTRICT #1 0.095100       $308.95    
GHD  HIDALGO COUNTY 0.590000               $1,916.74    
JCC  SOUTH TEXAS COLLEGE 0.185000     $601.01    
R12  ROAD DIST 12 0.000000                        $0.00    
SML  MCALLEN ISD 1.155000                        $3,463.51    
SST  SOUTH TEXAS SCHOOL 0.049200       $159.84    
 Total Tax Rate: 2.550600        
     Taxes w/Current Exemptions:                     $7,997.41  

I find this absolutely ridiculous.  Some of the homes we looked at within our housing budget had property taxes over 10K a year!

Aka you have a gov job and these taxes give you job security

My job has nothing to do with local taxes . I'm just bright enough to realize that without them we would have no roads, education, fire, disaster resources, ETC. 

And why do we still need publicly funded libraries (with employees in the state pension system) when everyone has internet access?
There's something else that should be abolished or privatized...

And why should you pay more "property" taxes because you put a nicer house on top of your "property?"
That's another ridiculous thing they do to punish success...

I've recently learned GD hates firefighters. As that was one of my careers I feel like I have a better sense of it than most.

One of the primary criteria for fire departments is the total value of the assets being protected. This is how funding is distributed, and how the services themselves are distributed. When a new station is proposed, the value of that station is evaluated in economic terms of response time and potential loss. Emergency services on the basis of population, how to get the maximum number of people served with minimal response time at minimal cost. A great deal of work goes into deciding what level of service is appropriate on an economic and humanitarian basis, and that subject can certainly be controversial, particularly when the solutions vary widely in a district and life and property are being protected by the same agency.

Taxing based on the value of the property under protection for property protection services is about as fair a proposition is it gets in terms of taxation IMO.

Renters pay property taxes same as everyone else, somebody owns that rental, they pay the taxes and recoup from the renter. In many jurisdictions renters pay considerably more than homeowners. Where I live a homeowner pays less than a quarter what a landlord would pay for the same property. Some people find this horribly unjust, but it is itself an attempt to reduce the injustice of taxing property, and to encourage home ownership and community.

Civilization isn't simple.

Bullshit.

All of those things would be better funded - and better run - if they were paid for by the people who actually desire to use them, instead of by force.

Hell, I didn't live in a place that had a professional fire department until I went to college. You paid you fire dues or you took your chances. Didn't pay your dues and you're not around to sign off on paying the multi-thousand-dollar bill when the vollies show up? They'll put water on the neighbor's property to keep the fire from spreading and watch your stuff burn.

Private roads exist all over the place.

Look - I grant that there are things that wouldn't work the same way or wouldn't exist at all without government infrastructure. Interstate highways are a good example of that, as is the rural electrification project of the Tennessee Valley Authority. My position is that government is built upon violence and the threat thereof, and that the benefit isn't worth the cost.

It's the equivalent of inflation for a fiat money system, in terms of intended effects.  It's total bullshit that it's applied to residential property.  But for business or investment property, it's a necessary evil.

You are so naive it is almost comical.

How do you propose to bill and collect for those services? Now you need a mini IRS for the county.  What is the penalty for those who won't or can't pay?  W/ property taxes, the landlord collects the taxes on the poor and remits them to the govt.  Is the county going to go and squeeze blood from a turnip?  You have your choice of income, sales, use and property taxes to fund local govt.  In some respects, property taxes are easier to enforce, and more transparent than the other choices, and thus more efficient for smaller govt. units.

They do it because they have more guns than you do.

No... Eventually you will die then there's no more taxes.

It is a real problem with no good solution. We as a society have a certain set of standards we are accustomed to and they only way to maintain them is to tax the shit out of people that have the money to pay.

Virtually everyone uses the services that property taxes pay for. Why does someone with a million dollar home have to pay ten times as much as someone with a a 100k home? Do they use the roads more? The police more? The fire dept more? I doubt it. Not trying to stereotype but the police seem to be more busy on the poor side of town and most (certainly not all) the fires I see on the news are at run down shacks that  probably are not up to code. Everyone should be taxed equally for this.

The problem with that is most people could not afford it. They tax the wealthier people because they have the money to pay. If they divided the total property tax collected by the total number of households I bet the per house share would be as much as some of the poorer houses were worth. There are a ton of people in my community that pay north of 10k a year in property taxes and there are plenty of houses not worth much more than that.

I could afford a lot more expensive home than I live in but my property tax bill already makes me sick so I stay where I am.

Franklin Jefferson and Carnegie are rolling in their graves at your suggestion.

It is a simple concept;

it is your money and the taxing powers have control over your money and there are lots of FSA programs . . . .

Doubtful



Other than some toll thruways, where? Maybe a few gated communities, which are hardly public roads



Then figure out where you can move where you can bring your theories to fruition. Surely some African or South American nations with areas that have barely seen the light of civilization would enjoy applying your theories on what private money can accomplish over government funded infrastructure paid for through taxation

ITT: People compare how badly they're getting fucked by the tax man.

More importantly, the vast majority of people don't get involved in their local politics and then complain about tax rates and how the money is spent. <shrug>

The only thing local government did well was law enforcement.  Now they have the cops to scared to do their job.

It is now only about their high salaries, top shelf benefits and outrageous pensions.

Probably because he is part of the 50% that pays taxes?  Hates to the see in inefficiencies of the money he pays being squandered by pin head bureaucrats?

I'll send you my tax bill next so you can fund the more of what you love I have no kids/never had kids in school/ I have  well and septic/ house never burned down oh yeah my road sucks and the State of RI has spent more time surveying delineating wet lands re-surveying pacing plastic flags  re/re/re/re-filling the same potholes over the last 5 years than it would have taken to re-pave the fucking 1.5 mile road.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BU_PqLN-ls

start at 3:40

Roads: About a third of the roads in my area are dirt, the paved ones look like the moons surface, and you are lucky that they plow them.
Schools: I have no kids so it is total BS that I have to pay to send other peoples kids to school.
Fire Service: All volunteer, but they do need equipment so I am good with it.
Police: We have two officers and one if the PC. Oh and the county just decided to add a full time officer to patrol the county office building because of "potential" threats. Last I heard we had two murders last year and both stemmed from a domestic issue. We are not a hot bed of crime.    
Water: I have a well.

And your point is....?

LOL I know plenty of small town cops doing the job without getting any of that

Taxes should be higher if anything. We should be thankful for the freedoms the government allows us to have.

I fucking hate that shit.......AND Cali property tax is relatively low.....AND I still pay out a shitload every year. Pisses me off.

Yep. Giving more than half your cash to .gov is not enough.

Although my sarcasm meter is pinging......I do actually hear this BS from Libtards. Gee Drsalee......if I had your cash.....I'd be HAPPY to pay more taxes. I have heard that on more than one occasion.

If you choose to not pay taxes,you don't get to ride on public roads, have clean water, protection by leo, protection from fires, be treated in any hospital where employees were given a public education up through high school,etc., and the list goes on. Granted some places pay more than their share and not all taxes are used wisely but we do need them. Some areas have higher taxes because the residents themselves want them to keep out the riff-raff. Just because our senators and congressman,use them for their own private gain(whether political or monetarily) and sometimes not what we would consider wise, means we need to hold them accountable at the polls.

Some places might work well with 1 leo/deputy or volunteer fire dept., but most do not. I have worked for a small fire dept. which was mostly volunteer and let me say, it was obvious. I met some good people who liked what they did but they could not/would not come to training, as they had other priorities. There are no requirements for training,most of them did their own thing (not a conjoined effort and everyone doing what they thought was right or needed constant supervision from the chief or other paid firemen). Response times were insane and I have witnessed people burn to death in their car after a mvc because the local vfd had to be dispatched, go to the firehouse and wait for others or hope others will show up at the scene and during that time, the pt./victim was dead. I am not saying all dept. are like that, but these volunteers have other jobs they need more in order to help with their own/family bills. Some, in little towns, have a job where they have freedom to respond from their jobs. I have also read stories,look them up for yourself, about a person's house burning down and the fire dept. just watches because they didn't pay their fire tax. I,myself, have had second degree burns to parts of my body while trying to help those in need  or injured due to someone who wanted to do harm to me and my fellow workers.

The same with ems. I have worked for private and public services in largely populated/wealthy counties in Fl. and have seen the pros and cons to both. In the private side, the main thing for them is turn over. How fast can you get the person to the hospital,regardless of what treatment is rendered and then respond to the next call holding. I have known many full time ems workers in the private sector,who have bragged about not using any emergency meds for a few years of their service. I have never had a shift where I don't use a few meds to help others. If you never use meds, you are either an idiot and don't know what you are seeing or you are too afraid to use your skills. Either way, thee is no room for you in this field. I have also seen some really good ones, but they usually move on to bigger and better things-nursing,other jobs,etc., because the management questions them why they spent too much time rendering aid to someone WHEN THEY NEEDED IT. The pubic side does have some cons as their are a few people who need to be terminated but don't because they get lost in the shuffle,which should fall on their officer but sometimes doesn't.

I don't enjoy paying taxes but if we don't, we can only blame ourselves when everything we have goes in the toilet.

http://munkschool.utoronto.ca/imfg/uploads/249/slack_presentation_on_why_value_based_property_taxation_durban_june_2013_final.pdf

Just a random item on property taxation benefits and issues.  But using the poor as a lowest common denominator of taxation would be a non-starter.

Just be glad some of you don't have to pay a local 1% wage tax in addition to school/property taxes.

You never really own anything or, have any equity in the property. The real estate tax makes sure of that. We are all slaves to the system.

I pay 3% local wage tax.

House #1: about $7400 in property taxes

House #2: about $13,5000 in property taxes

Plus 1.5% local tax

Plus whatever PA state tax is

Plus Federal

Plus FICA, etc

I paid $100,000 in taxes last year, before accounting for sales tax

Mine can't.  So those bastids bill me twice a year.