Reply #10: You have a point [View All]

[Coyote_Bandit]

It hacks me off to no end that folks who do not own property are allowed to vote to increase my property taxes. Those taxes went up about 20% last year and will do the same this year.

Meanwhile, rental rates here for a standard one bedroom apartment are pretty much the same as what they were a decade ago. Rental properties here are overbuilt so it is the owners not the tenants who are impacted by property tax increases. Renters here have no way of measuring the impact of tax increases and are not negatively impacted by increased rental rates.

I would not complain if these new tax increases were being used to fund education. But, no. The recent property tax increases here are for building a new convention center and sports stadium and for major city road repairs necessitated by years of neglect and for other long term planning projects which will benefit all residents. Some property owners here have seen their taxes increase 600% in the past year.


Edit to add: 1500 square foot house built in the mid 1950s on a quarter acre lot with a total assessed value of $100,000 = annual property taxes in excess of $1,700