Based on my previous posts, readers may correctly assume I am obsessed with this issue. It is after all stupid and shortsighted‼️
Property taxes are a “scam, “money grab” “the government.”
How can anyone abide such nonsense?
People who lack cognitive ability and critical thinking, that’s who.
The claims of $10,000 to $15,000 in property taxes are greatly exaggerated. For example, on a house valued at $370,000 the taxes in NJ, the highest property tax state in the country, are 1.88% or $6,956 Every other state is much less. Needless to say there are always exceptions.
A problem over stated via propaganda.
Industry research (e.g., from the National Tax Lien Association) has long indicated that less than ~0.05% of delinquent taxpayers lose their homes this way, or under 1% of delinquent bills end in actual tax foreclosure—and most of those involve vacant land, abandoned properties, or investment properties rather than primary residences.
Towns and school boards need to have a steady, reliable income source in order to establish budgets. Citizens either vote for school boards who set budgets or directly vote on propped budgets (primarily in the Northeast). Any significant spending requiring new debt is typically put up for a public vote.
Today I voted for a $41,000,000 bond issue for school repairs, maintenance and improvement. Who will lend a school district that kind of money without a steady nearly guaranteed revenue stream?
Sales taxes, income taxes, property taxes only collected upon sale of a house, consumption taxes can’t provide that ongoing revenue stability which is why property taxes have been used for education funding since the 1840s
And then there is the small matter of who will pay to make up lost revenue when certain groups like seniors are exempt from taxes.
