Property tax woes

Maybe the trouble is schools have gotten so big and bloated that they are eating up an unsustainable amount of money. The local school where I live has a huge indoor track, two football fields, two base ball fields, and two tennis courts, two weight rooms, and brand new buses. Keep in mind this is for a measly 600 students total, K-12. I remember going to that school and having to share text books. The science textbooks were horribly outdated as well (sometimes by 20 years). Unfortunately my school district is not alone with it's large and wasteful athletic programs. Maybe it is time for school districts to downsize and focus on educating instead of turning out little sports stars.

I think it is time for people to expect much less. The problem with California's property taxes were not because they had a reasonable cap on them but because people wanted more and more and didn't want to pay for it. I am fine with gravel roads, schools that don't have massive athletic programs, and not having roads salted every time one sees a tiny snow flake.

Lowered expectations = lower taxes. Can't have it both ways.

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Due to the overall economic slump, over 10% now unemployed, (closer to 17 if all the numbers were included), pay cuts to many of those still hanging on to their jobs, property values in decline, there is less money coming into the tax people. Obama is still having a holiday on our credit cards......... spending, spending and more spending....... You betcha, every possible tax rate is going to be raised to make sure he has a few extra dollars to blow on his pet projects. When the feds cut back on money to the states, the states have to cut back on money to the locals. This means our good citizens now have choices, we can either pay more tax, or receive fewer services.

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Well I assume that taxes are different in each state. I happen to be township Clerk here, I prepare the budget and levee each year for our township. We can not raise taxes more than 5% more than the previous years taxes. It takes a special bill, which has to be approved by the voters of said township in order to pass the bill. Now on the other hand the assessor has the right to up taxes on buildings as he see`s fit, and oh boy do the new home builders get raked over the coals. I will never build a new house here. I will have to move some place different in order to do that. I know people paying more than 10,000.00 taxes on new houses. agriculture land is different, they pay less on that. We had thought about building a new shed a few years ago and after we found out how much it was going to raise our taxes, we nixt that idea. Any questions? please ask. Thanks Marc

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5 acres, 4 wooded. A double wide trailer. THe whole setup 15 years ago cost $100k and some change. Some guy built a luxury $300k house a mile away and on a paved road and suddenly our property is worth $250k. A quarter million? Seriously noone is going to pay that. But they brought in 'big city' assessors from the western shore. Their argument is our property should be worth the same as a beach community on the western shore. WE'RE AN HOUR FROM THE BEACH, NOT SITTING IN THE SAND.

We're zoned recreational, hoping that a rezone to agricultural will help cut that. But the county is crying blood for lack of money (State cut over 22 million in annual funding), and unlikely to pass up a chance to squeeze someone. The worst part is the increased property taxes are actually causing people to leave the area, and there isn't an economy to bring in rich folks that can pay that kind of money.

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Our assessment value went down, but our taxes only slightly down. We live on 6.68 acres (zoned RP-20) and pay $2,300/year (off a private gravel road a few driveways to paved portion). We have our own well & septic. We have a Shop, double Carport, an Office, and a Doublewide Mobile Home- remodeled 1980. Now, our taxes would DOUBLE if we built the home we planned, but if we apply through L & I and just "remodel" our home, the taxes won't be double yet would go up. Eventually, we will get a remodel permit and still get the house we would have built, without the incredible headaches you deal with here going through the Building Dept. L & I is far better! We have a good populace here, but a tiny "town." The grade school, that was full, was shut down to fill the schools "in town."

From the posts here, it looks like the taxes are in a mess across the country, other than in places that have gotten things to a % by law. Interesting thread responses...Thank you.

and now, for the NEXT part of the story (there will be a "rest of the story" wrap up after I get ahold of the assessor and show up at the January County Board Meeting )

The town treasurer was VERY sympathetic and talkative (30 minutes of discussing what's going on). He had my tax bill in front of him and since he's on the County Board, he could tell me what was up with the County and School end of it.

The school district added a middle school last year. That's where part of the school tax goes...funding that. As well as the things I mentioned before. The township had a really bad 2 years..major flooding and washout summers ago (entire town was flooded out and some roads simply washed away) and then winter last year was horrible for snow plowing.

For those who said I should get ahold of the assessor..YOU'RE RIGHT! I'm wrong The value of the property is the same...but he put it in as "recreational" land. (it doesn't show up on the tax bill anywhere which the Treasurer said ticks off a LOT of people) Which effectively triples the tax rate. I have 2 ways to go here (other than just pay it), talk to assessor and get him to put it BACK into ag/farm, or put it in the "forest management" plan.

The treasurer gave me the assessor's phone number, and I start trying to reach him today. The forest management thing is not a good arrangement for us, since the property is actually being used as a farm.

WHY did he assess it as recreational? I suspect that he just did a drive-by or even a "yah, that's the same as the stuff around it". You see, the property is, from the road, a flat strip and a heavily wooded hill. Up on the TOP it's pasture, garden, chickens, turkeys, rabbits, 1 tractor, 1 Backhoe, 1 truck, 1 LARGE pole barn, 1 LARGE garden, 1 SMALL hayfield...obviously not recreation but a working farm, albeit small. Treasurer was surprised to hear that we have it fenced since that is usually a tip off that it's a farm, not recreation.

My taxes will be higher than last year, and by more than most places because we simply have a very small tax base. BUT it should only be by maybe 10%..not 300%

He did warn me that because of a new 8.3Million dollar building that's going up, they'll increase in 2011 by another $400/100 acres. and THAT is why I'm going to the county board meeting next month But that's for another thread

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Our valuations went up here too. What county are you in?

Kendall

Caswell county. They had some formula that they applied per square ft of house, and another that they used for ft of road frontage for bare land. On the house, they figure a price as if it was a new house of x square ft. then they figure its worth 85% of that value, based on how old it is. Crazy, you can have a 30 year old shack and it's worth the price of a brand new house, less 30 years of depreciation. Of course, you can never sell it for that.

I used to tell people that Indiana was a cheap place to live, and one reason was our affordable taxes.

Then the state elected Republican Mitch Daniels as governor...a true to life tax-and-spend politician. He has simply raised taxes on everything, and where he couldn't raise taxes, he raised the fees. It used to cost $6 to get a drivers license, now it costs $15, and another $20 if you are late on renewing it.

Our property taxes went up tremendously under his first term as governor.

Our local school board decided that they couldn't live without the second most expensive high school in state history, so they built themselves a Taj Mahal. Every team sport has their own locker rooms, and their own weight lifting rooms. And now the school board cannot understand how or why they are facing a million dollar shortfall on maintenance and energy bills for that building.

Needless to say, our property taxes went through the roof!!!!!

Balderdash, I got free lunches due to Dad being totally disabled and part of my high school was carpeted and I don't expect anything free

All of you telling her to contest it, need to go back and re-read: The assesment is nearly the same, the township raised its mil-rate though to pay for some school repairs.

Problem is... for those already strapped but managing to pay the taxes.. loading more taxes on people isn't going to help them. Just means more people are going to loose their land.
I honestly don't think Gov is spending our very hard earned money wisely. Think their greedy little fingers want more than they really need.

Our taxes went up and what do we get for it in this county... no road repair on the dirt road and it looks it. Went from 14 sheriff's down to 2.. no services at all. Other than the over abundence of people being payed at town hall.

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Shari

You better get it zoned ag because the tax rates for forestry are higher. Either way, usually about one acre will be cut out around the house and that has a seperate "rate" that is residential in nature. So, I feel you will still suffer a good size increase...

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No.
The Problem is the CA tax payers who "revolted" didn't understand that Prop 13 also applied to Commercial properties as well as residential houses.

The tax payers were trying to save their homes, but instead the big corporations that own big skyscraper and other commercial properties in CA have made out like bandits in the years since Prop 13.

The state of California would not be bankrupt if Prop 13 DID NOT apply to Commercial properties.

-deb
in wi

Very interesting point, Deb. Shouldn't the Prop 13 apply to all properties? Isn't everyone to be treated equally under the law?

My understanding of California's situation is that it goes far deeper. They tried to be everything to everyone. To pay for that required killing the golden goose.

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our summer and winter taxes combined went down well over $300 for the year..we were thrilled..they said in our bill that we can expect them to drop a little more next year.

that's Michigan for you

Butler County, OH, just said publicly that they have done an out of cycle tax evaluation and all the tax rates are going down as little as 4.5% in the whole county. The big run up in real estate values, coupled to the bust in home prices have just got everyone up in arms as they actually INCREASED the taxes last year in the normal tri-annual review.
Last January, when they put in the increases, the real estate tax appraisers office was flooded with protests, and apparently there were so many that priced out lower than the increase called for, that the tax accessor decided to re-do the tax appraisals on ALL properties in the county, gratis.
Mine went up $200 a year, no improvements or new buildings.
I will get my bill, and I will STILL contest it with a professional real estate appraisal this time as I'm refinancing. Two birds with one stone, as they say.
I figure fight it each time, the houses around me that went to foreclosure are way lower than I am and the only difference is that they went through foreclosure and sold at a much lower price than my farm is worth.
So fight it.

Same thing here in PA. I pay almost $4000 in property taxes and live in a very old modest home. I don't know how people on fixed incomes do it.

The high property taxes are starting to trickle down throughout the state. We are becoming Little NY and face the same problems as Albany with spending in our state government.

This is why I am all for Charter Schools/Private Schools/Homeschooling. Most of them don't have the athletic teams.

Guess that I must be the odd-man-out here as my taxes went down $66.98 from last year's 2,643.71 to 2,576.73. That's on a home that I bought in 1963 for $10,900. Taxes that year were $125 of which $15 was the annual sewer charge. Now it's assessed at $127,000. Still had all 12 public school grades in one building. Currently have 7 elementary and 2 middle schools in addition to building a second high school. I've certainly invested an awful lot of money into schools after my kids graduated in '81 and '82. Someday I'm going to get out all of the records and see just how many times over I have paid for this house.

Martin