Old people just want to ruin everything for the younger people. Old people got their houses cheap, now they're worth more and they pay more property taxes. They don't work anymore, so they won't have to suffer the consequences of higher income taxes. If you don't pay property taxes, all the money has to come from somewhere else. Only other options are income tax or sales tax. Old people would say take it from sales tax since they aren't working anymore. Property tax is proportional to your property value, if you can't or don't want to pay property tax, sell your house and rent somewhere or buy a cheaper property.
Outside of the questions about where the funding would otherwise come from, property taxes seem like one of the more obviously justifiable taxes out there. I get a lot of value out of the government recognizing and protection my ownership of land. If I want to maintain land for my exclusive use and benefit in perpetuity, there should be a cost associated. Absent a system that provided that service, I would certainly be out looking to contract with some entity to protect those rights for me, and it would come with much less certainty.
If Billionaires and corporations paid their fair share in taxes, we could maybe do this.
What is a fair share? The top 1% makes 21% of income and pays 42% of taxes. Is that “fair”?
Your principle holds for the top 1%, but not for the top 0.1%. That is people who make a couple of million dollars per year pay a lot of taxes, but those on the next level, the ultrarich, have access to offshore accounts, corporate tax dodges, and other tricks that greatly lower their tax burdens. Donald Trump pays almost nothing, for example. because he finds a way to report negative net income most years.
So how you are supposed to get schools and bridges financed?
Exactly.
These people ignore that the actual value and very viability of their home is the result of public investment: in nearby schools, municipal water/sewage systems, roads, etc. (Not to mention the clearance of forests and other terrain for neighborhoods in the first place.)
Without all of these things homeowners like me would have homesteads in the middle of empty land, which would be of little value and have no investment upside.
Thank your city government for the value of your home, and pay your taxes.
Personally, I hate income tax. The wealthy avoid their fair share with financial manipulation while the middle class vear a disproportionate amount.
Sales/property tax, or tax on any sort of consumption is a more fair method of taxation.
Just a moment.
All of that "financial manipulation" is completely legal.
So how is it not fair?
How come you money grabbers never define "fair share"?
"Fair" always just means someone else's money. Even when they become billionaire's like Jeff Bezos these leftists think everyone but them should be paying taxes.
So how you are supposed to get schools and bridges financed?
Exactly.
These people ignore that the actual value and very viability of their home is the result of public investment: in nearby schools, municipal water/sewage systems, roads, etc. (Not to mention the clearance of forests and other terrain for neighborhoods in the first place.)
Without all of these things homeowners like me would have homesteads in the middle of empty land, which would be of little value and have no investment upside.
Thank your city government for the value of your home, and pay your taxes.
Uh, do you not know how Las Vegas was developed?
Private finance.
Railroad bought land, built houses, and sold them.
This happened wherever the railroad went, but I highlighted Vegas for the name recognition.
So how you are supposed to get schools and bridges financed?
School Admins where I live get paid $250,000 per year. In addition, they get $100,000s worth of benefits in the form of the best health insurance plans and pension programs.
this is public information.
The school districts buy brand new buses every year, hundreds of thousands of dollars.
they approve $90 M athletic field projects, even though we already have athletic fields in decent shape.
the only nice thing we get for property taxes is that they will pick up branches/trees on the side of the road.
we could realistically cut the total property taxes in half and we would be ok. Make up the difference in sales tax, because the rest is wasteful and evil quite frankly.
property taxes are theft.
my city spends 30k per student and has something like a 20% HS graduation rate. Some of the worst ratios of cost:result for a classroom in the country. Yet they keep throwing money at the problem....doesn't matter.
To put this school administration talk in perspective, my town spent $5 million last year on school administration (counting all levels -- elementary, middle school, and high school) against roughly $125 million in property-tax revenues. You could make all school administrators work for free and it wouldn't meaningfully change property-tax bills.
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The rich lose money many years. Thus is why tariffs and sales tax makes sense in order tax the rich and the criminals and illegals who aren't filing tax returns.