Quote:
|
Quote by: YourTokah I simply don't think it's right. In my grandma's town, the property taxes include the school taxes, monies to pay for the operation of the various schools in the area.... Obviously, she doesn't require the services of any of these schools. I'm sure she would love to give money to the school system could she afford it, but she lives on a very small income. The idea that she could lose her home, her home for over sixty years now that she and her husband built up from nothing, because of her inability to pay taxes on it when she stopped paying the mortgage years and years ago, is ludicrous. While I understand what the money is being used for and that most of it can be necessary, I believe that we should have a more defined and inclusive exemption policy when it comes to property taxes. If you're over a certain age or you're disabled, you shouldn't have to pay them. Let everyone else pick up the slack, or add a 1cent gas tax (like one more penny will matter with these prices) - sooner or later, people should be able to reach a point where they don't have to worry about property taxes. I guess my 401k is going to have to include money to pay property taxes every year for the rest of my life. Which is friggin ridiculous. |
The real solution is to lower or remove property taxes. If you just pass the burdens on to other people, they won't have enough money to pay their mortgage or provide for themselves either.
An alternative idea I'd had before about property taxes was to instead of have it an annual fee, instead make it like an extended lease, where you can prepay for so many years so in the event something happens you don't lose the property right away.
But the real problem is that government is taking and wasting too much, period. It doesn't matter how you shuffle it around, it's going to hit someone, which could be a child or a single mother or even someone trying to save up to have a home also. There are so many inefficiencies created through these things that it tends to drag everyone down.
On that article I posted above, a lot of people went to protest the actions that were taken against that family. I'd recommend getting together some people in the area and at least make it known that if she loses her property it's another black mark on the public record.
The thing that bothers me most is that the government didn't create the land and the houses weren't funded by public resources so there seems no legitimate claim to ownership. The reason why property taxes are so common though is because they know where to come to collect :(.
There might be a way she could share the place with someone else and charge some rent to help pay the taxes or possibly some private charity or church could help some.
Regarding the renting, many people think property taxes only hit the owners of the property ... nope, guess what bill is stuck on your rent every month. If you're living somewhere there's a property tax, you're paying it in one form or another.