Property Taxes Are Theft - Jefferey Tucker
Posted by freedomforall 4 days, 6 hours ago to Economics
Excerpt:
"Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida has an absolutely thrilling idea, one I never imagined I would see unfold in my lifetime. He is putting on the ballot next year a referendum that would abolish or restrict local governments from taxing owner-occupied homes.
That’s right, he wants to get rid of the property tax, saving residents some $3,400 a year and fundamentally disrupting the way schools and local governments are financed.
Texas is considering the same path.
If this really happens, I can easily predict more of a demographic shift out of the Northeast and Northwest to the South and Texas. If this spreads to more states, it would amount to a revolution in public finance.
It’s long overdue. These tax schemes are brutal on home ownership. Indeed, it’s hard to say that you are ever really the owner of your home if you are having to pay rent to the government every year.
It’s especially a problem in an environment when the home valuation goes up every year and so does the tax you owe on the place. You have done nothing but lived there and enjoyed life. It is entirely paid off. Meanwhile, the government keeps coming after you with ever more pressing demands for money.
You cannot really say you are an owner of anything under these conditions."
---------------------------------------
Publik skools are a disgrace.
Stop funding them.
"Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida has an absolutely thrilling idea, one I never imagined I would see unfold in my lifetime. He is putting on the ballot next year a referendum that would abolish or restrict local governments from taxing owner-occupied homes.
That’s right, he wants to get rid of the property tax, saving residents some $3,400 a year and fundamentally disrupting the way schools and local governments are financed.
Texas is considering the same path.
If this really happens, I can easily predict more of a demographic shift out of the Northeast and Northwest to the South and Texas. If this spreads to more states, it would amount to a revolution in public finance.
It’s long overdue. These tax schemes are brutal on home ownership. Indeed, it’s hard to say that you are ever really the owner of your home if you are having to pay rent to the government every year.
It’s especially a problem in an environment when the home valuation goes up every year and so does the tax you owe on the place. You have done nothing but lived there and enjoyed life. It is entirely paid off. Meanwhile, the government keeps coming after you with ever more pressing demands for money.
You cannot really say you are an owner of anything under these conditions."
---------------------------------------
Publik skools are a disgrace.
Stop funding them.
Just by moving from Alabama he also escaped having to pay a state tax.
First, taxing a home on its increased value is WRONG (it is an unrealized gain).
Second, All tax on growth should BACK OUT Inflation. As 90% of real estate gains are just inflation.
But I LOVE this idea. I would settle for limiting the tax to the purchase price. My house was $122K when I bought it. I paid it off decades ago. They say it is worth 545K now. My insurances was < $1K/yr. It would be > $9K/yr now. Double whammy. My insurance+taxes are now BIGGER than my original mortgage.
Now, my taxes are protected with Homestead exemption. But they are really increasing. From $1,400 to 2,400, now 2,800 with the recent acceleration being insanely fast. The 2% cap is helpful, but NOT after 30 years. And the more expensive the house becomes, the 2% becomes bigger.
Income tax is slavery.
Property tax (on sale/purchase) is fine.
But it begs the question. How do we pay for the services we do get? Schools, Fire Depts, etc?
Put me back to $1,400/yr (Tax on Purchase Price only), and I am good. But another 35 years in this house is going to be costing me more than ever.
BTW, Anyone else like the idea of DeSantis as a Supreme Court Justice!
If I lived all these years in the first home I bought as an adult in 1970, the tax on $13k would be negligible. But the tax on $400k with my latest purchase (and which I am paying $4k/year property taxes right now)...it would not help me to sell this property if the price were to go up, even enough for me to cover the real estate agent's commission. People would just stay where they were and the real estate market would collapse.
Like the stock market, real estate prices have been supported by government interference for decades, protecting the banking cartel and others who feed the parasites in D.C.
It has also had the effect of making home owners falsely feel wealthier and less likely to tar and feather the D.C. parasites.
I mean, I totally love the my kids and their kids (and grandkids) in my family but I don't want to lose everything for them. Self-sacrifice is not exactly what I am about. I think most objectivists aren't either.
I see no point in paying government (more than rent) to never "own" the home I paid for.
If I have to pay again and again to the gov, then I don't own it; they do.
Bottom line in the US, either triple digit inflation or deflation is coming. Best to get out of the way.
I understand your point and agree with it. My difference is: my kids, grandkids and their kids are far more important to me than what I will ever have to pay in taxes. I didn't actually realize that until I moved away from what I consider "home," to this gawdforsaken place in the desert. I didn't realize what "being in exile" meant until I moved here.
Which makes me wonder how much of this williness to be exploited by the state is driven by people like me who will pay any price to be near those they love. Just a speculation.
for them to drive people to the razor's edge without most rebelling for exactly the reason you mention. They count on it, imo.
So a long time location-stable resident has lower taxes than a new resident or one who has moved to a different home.
Honestly, I think once you retire, it should not go up either.
But I think taxing unrealized gains is against the law. For obvious reasons. But somehow the STATE does it.
And I've been in this (my first house) for over 30 years. I could not move because I did not like quadrupling the property taxes. They only go up from there.
It does shed light on why the 'average' cited in the article is only $3,400 a year.
That's about $300 a month more support than the ejakashun system deserves (from this childless sole.)
My residence taxes in Tx were too high back in 1985 when I left there.
Ditto for the taxes on my condo in Tampa, FL back then.
I am happily house-less at present.
I, and my family, will be voting for the abolition of property tax here, however. I really don't have a clue how a bill like that would not get the votes needed.
The FED Note (debt owed to the banks) instead of certificates of precious metals held in the treasury, is the greatest scam, lie ever made. Inflation is nothing other that prices equalizing to the amount of debt removed from your FED note to finance government over spending. That is impossible with certificates and deadly with Debt Notes.
I think I have missed your point, LH.