Wait for the backlash to have an effect. Participate in the response to the conversation. The county can cut services to indigents and freeloaders or watch the wage earners leave the county and properties lose value due to the exodus.

 

It all depends on what you are paying now. If it is 2%, that bumps it up to 2.8%

 

However, if your little spot of land is worth $400,000.00, 2% would be $8,000.00. 2.8% would increase it to $11,200.00.

To me, $3,200.00 ($266.67 a month) isn't chicken feed.

THEN there is the crap of, in our area, most of the taxes going to schools.

 

So what is changing the amount demanded from land owners? Is it the valuation (reassessment), the levy or both? There are ways to deal with these things especially when the land owners get together. Not just complaining but demanding justification.

 

Shortfalls in the budget. Im trying to read through the minutes of the meeting but I am not well versed in town budgeting. Apparently theyve been 'backfilling' vacant jobs and the cost of that, plus pensions and insurance has created a problem. They passed a resolution to freeze new hires but I dont know if that will be enough.

They have also, apparently, been putting homeless up in hotels and thats helped blow the budget.

 

These people are insane. The whole county will be devastated. Looking at our options. We just cant stay, its not sustainable. Very sad right now, we love our home.😞

Unfortunately, that is your taxation with representation.

 

So they’re spending too much too fast.

 

Yeah, its like they dont know how to project expenses out beyond 1 year.

 

Oh, they will have the "justification" ready, but if it's like Travis County in Texas, they have spent too much on projects and services that are better left to the federal or state governments.

When you concentrate this many people in such a small area, the needs go up. I don't have a solution to who is supposed to feed and house the homeless, but I think the churches (in general) are slacking. I don't think Dell Childrens Medical School needs 35 million dollars of tax money.

 

The price of materials skyrocketing also fuels the overruns.

 

Well theres things about NY that Ive always disliked. Maybe this is the nudge I needed to finally pull up stakes.

 

Come out to the Heartland!

 

Sorry you are facing this. It's a problem in many places. Right now there is a serious petition drive in Ohio to change the Constitution to abolish property taxes - Ax Ohio Tax - AxOHTax.

Could you point us to the county website you mentioned? I see people making up all sorts of stuff in this thread and it helps to have actual facts. School related taxes typically make up the largest chunk of taxes. Rather than deciding to move at this point, get engaged in what's happening. Get your friends and neighbors engaged. Tax increases typically have to go to the voters. Don't give up just yet.

 

Sorry you are facing this. It's a problem in many places. Right now there is a serious petition drive in Ohio to change the Constitution to abolish property taxes - Ax Ohio Tax - AxOHTax.

Could you point us to the county website you mentioned? I see people making up all sorts of stuff in this thread and it helps to have actual facts. School related taxes typically make up the largest chunk of taxes. Rather than deciding to move at this point, get engaged in what's happening. Get your friends and neighbors engaged. Tax increases typically have to go to the voters. Don't give up just yet.

I hope you are right. Im not sure if this will go to the voters. In NY there is supposed to be a cap on raises of 2%, if they want to break the 2% cap the county board must take a special vote...[ which doesnt seem like much of a cap to me ] .

Our school taxes are a different type of tax which we pay separately. They raised that tax 8% this year [ I thought that was bad! ]. Here are the minutes of the meeting [ the discussion about 40% begins at the bottom of page 2 under 'other business' ];

https://www.washingtoncountyny.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Minutes/_09112025-2498?utm_source=chatgpt.com

 

Here's where the county official discusses the housing of homeless and the terrible cost to the county;

 

I think right now might be a good time to buy in some of the areas you mention, what with demand down but before mortgage rates drop much. On the other hand, it may not be a good time to sell. I hope you can thread the needle and make a good move soon.

 

Our West Va school levy tax was $1164. Fire fee $50 ambulance fee $168 and you still pay to use an ambulance. So you need to look where ever you might move for the added tax.( for house land 6ak with homestead exemption $350)

 

That's interesting about the ambulance. In our area ambulance service is handled by a private company. They provide services in a number of Ohio and West Virginia counties. They offer annual "memberships" that cost $10/$20/$25 a year for Individuals/couples/families. No additional charge for any runs during the year. They'll still bill insurance, Medicare or Medicaid but regardless of what they pay or don't pay, we pay nothing. I consider that a bargain as the nearest hospital is about an hour away under the best of conditions. If you don't have a membership then the bill is whatever it is. EMT Ambulance

Fire here is also kind of interesting. For a long time the county (unincorporated areas) was covered by our volunteer fire department. The county had a relatively small levy. About 5-6 years ago the county volunteer fire department merged with the paid fire department in the county seat and a couple of other municipalities. If you aren't making an insurance claim they won't charge you for a run to your place. If you are making an insurance claim they will submit a bill to your insurance company.

 

The 3 biggest state taxes are income tax, property tax, and sales tax. I think you should figure out which taxes affect you the most. For example, if you are able to produce a lot of your food, maybe sales tax isn't as important as property tax.

I don't have to pay state income tax or property tax, but the sales tax kills me. If they would at least exempt food, it would make a big difference.

 

Absolutely, we dont have a big income and we dont buy much. We're homesteaders, so the big expense is property tax.

On a personal note, although I like alot of things about the south I dont like the hot season. I like 4 seasons with a respectable winter, and good rainfall. Thats why those middle states appeal to me. My heart has always been drawn to Kentucky [ and my wife feels the same way ].

Our son is adamant he does not want to move. He says this is our home and he loves it here so we should stay. Its tough, Im still hoping that somehow they will figure it out and we wont have such a big increase.

 

So what is new? We all 'may be' going through that. But 40% then 30%?!? Sounds to be like tar and feathering time. We don't need tolerance for transgender students funded by the state for the school. But it's all for your benefit because that's what democracy does - it benefits you!

 

Do you have a large property? Will it be hard to restart with gardens and such? Are you still working or retired? Just wondering how difficult moving will be on your homesteading goals.

 

We've got 75 acres. They are good acres though; 30 acres in hay and 40 in good hard woods. Theres about 5 acres of lawn, barn, and paddock. We have a big barn, a sugar shack, 4 car garage and a decent older colonial house.

I was involved in a family business for 30 years and it was sold a few years ago with all the property. Im 53, I dont consider myself "retired" but Im strickly homesteading now. Wife works full time but she'll move in a heart beat. Health is good.

I think we are extremely mobile and can move almost anywhere if we want to. I wont stop homesteading though until the day I die. I think we could sell this place and buy something similar in one of the states I mentioned pretty easily. The hard part would be the actual move with equipment, livestock, pets, personal stuff, etc

 

You have other options I fear.

 

Im sorry to hear this, that really sucks.

 

Well people around here are pretty upset. The county just announced a special public hearing before they vote. Ill show up....not sure how much good it will do but Ill be there. I sent out emails to all the assembly people in the county. Again...not sure how much good it will do but I'm trying.

 

Illinois repealed it’s 1% grocery tax recently, so….the towns implemented their own to make up for lost $$.
Taxes, they’ll get ya one way or the other.

We moved in retirement and pay half the sales tax, no grocery tax, pay less for auto gas, and about 1/4 the previous property tax now until the school decided they needed more money, and even so, it's still not a burden.
Over time it all adds up.

 

All those little numbers add up to a big number. There is a tipping point for some people.

 

I think that's one of the reasons the "abolish property tax" petition seems to be getting traction in Ohio. The every 6 year re-assessment just hit in Carroll County and people are freaking. Valuations up over 100% and using the tax calculator people are looking at 40% increases in property tax.(I haven't looked yet.) Almost immediately there's been a wave of people reaching out to the person leading the local petition effort asking where they can go to sign. I'm not for totally abolishing property taxes but we are screwed either way. If it passes, it blows everything up. If it doesn't pass I doubt the politicians will do anything substantive to fix things. I read the report from the committee Gov. DeWine set up and their suggestions are basically tinkering around the edges.

 

I'm currently shopping for a house and land. Property tax burden has a bigger bearing on my decision than the actual asking price. I've looked at some nice modest homes...then I look up what the taxes are and it's a hard pass!
I've been pretty much nomadic in my motorhome for the last couple of years. It's 38 ft with a super slide and 2 big basement storage bays. I'm working on a few tweaks but overall I am very comfortable.
I can afford a house but I am seriously considering buying bare land and NOT improving it or make the improvements non-attached for tax reasons.
I have a really decent solar system in a cargo trailer I pull. I'd like a concrete pad to park on and an RV cover with a shed roof off of one side for shaded outside area and rain catchment. I don't think that would raise the property value by much.
In Texas where they get you is raising the appraised value of your property.

 

It USED to be in Texas that if what you lived in had wheels, you paid a VERY low tax. May still be the same?

 

There are a lot of variables needed to understand what a 40% increase actually means in dollars. It may be an exorbitant increase, but it also may actually be a relatively small increase.

appraised value of your property.

Since I left the city in the early 90s I have built two homes in raw land in rural areas. In both cases the only permit was for drilling a well and in the first place, the septic. For the water wells there was no inspection - just a report to the State. For the septic there was no inspection because everyone knew XXXX XXXX and his one man band company and he did wonderful work as long as it was 30-50 year old technology.

But to appraisals for tax purposes, I knew pulling permits is a multifaceted issue. First, after paying for the permits themselves and maybe some kind of bureaucratic review, the permit mainly serves to give notice to the assessors office for a follow-up for personal property taxes. There was not permit required to put up an out building and bring REA power into it but if a home got built afterward, OK? In both homes I have been on site when the assessors (always two) showed up, unannounced and literally years after the construction was done. Tape measurers in hand, a camera and 'the clip board' with checkboxes. At the first place I wasn't necessarily cheating but I wasn't 'greasing the wheels either.' All was good and cordial until they asked if I had ventilation fans in the bathrooms. I got angry and asked if I was paying taxes to exhaust stink from the bathrooms?!? It got tense from there.

In the current case the assessors got locked out of access to a place behind and saw tire tracks. They thought they'd ask for the lock combo to the neighbor's property (which I didn't know of course) - then they saw the homestead. "Um, new construction, huh? Well we have to do what we do." All was good until I saw them measuring the chicken house and was not too subtle. "Oh, we thought this was a storage shed." A storage shed is a taxable improvement. There there chickens in the run and clucking the whole time. In our area, AG stuff is not a capital/taxable improvement.

All of this to say when all is said and done the assessor folk go back to their office to correlate the check boxes and develop a comparable to recent sales. Sounds reasonable - that's how all assessors do it, right? The problem is what they have available for comparison or 'comps.' If none they develop their own. You can argue about a bathroom fan or being off grid but you can not argue the entire basis of the valuation as being comparable to a recent sale if there are none.

The above is all assessor stuff.
------

I mentioned earlier about assessed value and levy. After you are done arguing about the home and out buildings and the bathroom fans these are completely different things: land characterization and usage. Your home may be given given 5 +/- acres. The rest SHOULD be something different from the homestead.

Maybe your time is worth so much it is not worth researching.

 

Maybe your time is worth so much it is not worth researching.
[/QUOTE]

A lot of weenies out there.

Do what you do and whine about taxes. We are in WA. Major taxes. We are fine, thank you. But we don't live in Seattle, etc.

 

No, you do not speak for other than yourself in WArshington. Taxes are absurd. Especially since much of the collected money is squandered. In fact, most of the taxes go to schools that put out clueless, brainwashed sheep.

Maybe your time is worth so much it is not worth researching.

A lot of weenies out there.

Do what you do and whine about taxes. We are in WA. Major taxes. We are fine, thank you. But we don't live in Seattle, etc.
[/QUOTE]

 

A bit of encouraging news; After ALOT of public outcry the town supervisors released a statement promising that they will not vote for a 40% increase. They are promising heavy cuts but its still unknown how much they can cut and what the increase will actually be.

They stated pretty bluntly that they were shipped a load of migrants [ illegal ] and have been forced to house them as part of a state mandate. Thats was one of four factors which also included rising healthcare costs, and rising county share of employee retirement pensions [ which I suppose we can thank our governor for ].

Hoping for the best outcome.

 

The governor and the legislature get the credit, too. Sure you want to stay in NY?