My real estate taxes could go up 40%

[Solar_Power]

in Putnam County, NY

Anyone else live in Putnam?

How can such a dramatic increase be legal?

For those not in the area, here is an article on this
http://www.nyjournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070910/NEWS04/709100340

[blitzen]

1. those property tax rates seem awfully low....about half of what we pay in

Louisiana....and we're famous for low property taxes. Even with the increase, those folks are kind of lucky.

[dysfunctional press]

2. "would raise the average homeowner's county property-tax bill by about $274, to $969..."

less than $1000/year for property taxes????

so what's the problem?

our property taxes are $5600/year- and we don't live in anything even approaching a mcmansion.
we have a 3-bedroom ranch home.

[pitohui]

5. $5600 a year! my entire mortgage was $440 a month!

jeesus, i could never have had a house

my property tax is around $100 a year in louisiana

and yes 3 bedrooms, 2 baths

and even tho our house is paid off, with the other expenses, like insurance, we struggle

how do you pay this without robbing banks? seriously?

[dysfunctional press]

9. $100/year property tax?

how are schools funded in the area?
how about police/fire departments?

what kind of services does that $100/year cover?

[blitzen]

17. louisiana has an exemption on the first $75,000 of property value...

if your house is assessed at $75,000, you pay no property tax

my house in louisiana is assessed at $234,000, so I pay taxes on it as if it were valued at $159,000....that comes out to about $1750 a year....not bad but not insignificant.

This actually helps shield lower-income homeowners from the burden of property taxes--a legacy of Huey Long's populism

[Selatius]

24. Sounds like quite a few owners could benefit from Huey Long's "shield" on property taxes.

It would essentially make property taxes more progressive.

[pitohui]

41. yes i'm lower income and have a very modest home, thanks blitzen

i think it's a good thing to promote home ownership, it makes it possible for people to be invested in their community instead of being forever excluded

and i think huey long was just peaches!

[pitohui]

40. well since i live in st, tammany parish it's top of line services for that $100 a year

education is funded by lottery and for whatever reason our parish has the best rated public school system in the state

people are entitled to own their own homes, believe it or not, question

and we have paid police/fire NOT volunteer fire depts as most places do so apparently the money comes from somewhere -- probably the sales tax

you don't have to lose your home to have good schools and low crime, you can do both, you have been snookered

property tax is wrong, it keeps younger people from being home owners and investing in the community and it keeps older people from being able to keep their homes, it's good for no one

[FourScore]

16. Uh, wrong. You have to understand how NY does it's prop taxes.

The article is only referring to county taxes. On top of that, New Yorkers pay town and state property taxes. As far as I know, NY has some of the highest property taxes in the US. Where I live, the state, county and town taxes all add up to 4.8% of my assessed value. Right now, I am paying more in taxes than mortgage each month. It's crazy here. We would like to do an add-on, but we have been told that it will double our prop taxes if we do it, so we can't.

[yellowdogintexas]

38. it' s the school taxes that run it up in New York.

depending on where you live the taxes are split among several entities. County/township, school, Village, borough depending on your area. Unless you actually live in NYC which is all billed together, collected by the NYC dept of finance and split into 4 equal installments.

[FourScore]

44. Exactly. n/t

[mondo joe]

28. Mine is 3,467 - but Seattle voters regularly increase property taxes to pay for education and

social services.

[Bandit]

31. Mine are about the same as yours, maybe a little more and my home

is a two bedroom one bath house. No garage and only a half acre of land. Two years ago my property value jumped 25% which added over $1200. per year on what I pay..I do have a spectacular view and for that I get reemed..I have lived in my home for over fifty years and when my dad bought it he paid six thousand dollars. Times do change don't they..

[Mojorabbit]

3. They

ended up making a law here in Fl to limit property taxes. A lot of elderly people on fixed incomes could not afford it.

[dysfunctional press]

4. but it's usually the ones who CAN AFFORD IT that make the biggest stink.

nt

[pitohui]

6. that's because those who can't afford it don't get press

in a way we are dependent on those who do have pull with the press to get attention to issues, because a problem that only affects low income people is ignored

[blondeatlast]

37. Yep. nt

[NobleCynic]

11. Said laws end up protecting the super rich far more than the elderly

Not to be overly cold, but said elderly should just sell their house and move into a place they can afford. Look at what happened to California after Prop 13. The side effects of these measures are often far-reaching and crippling to the state's infrastructure. It would be far better to find a different way to help elderly people on fixed incomes to keep their houses than permanently cripple the tax structure of the local and state governments. Rebates perhaps? But a limit on raising property taxes is foolish to say the least. A limit on how quickly the tax rate can be raised could be acceptable. But most limits in these laws are on how quickly the taxable assessable value of the property can rise. Such limits are short sighted beyond belief.

[alittlelark]

21. Post #19... a description of what you said.

This is one of the wealthiest cities in the country.... they made out like bandits.



There are a few REALLY old neighbors here w/ in home help who are being kept alive for the property value increases every year (Terry Schiavo types). One in a nursing home w/ her kids' family living in the house (5 homeschooled girls who rarely leave the house), another has a full time attendant....she lives next doior and I have never seen the kids she talked about 10 or so years ago (when she was cognizant). The other is a REALLY old man - house and yard in disarray (to an EXTREME) w/ kids that show up every few weeks. I have not seen HIM in 5 or so years.

[pitohui]

42. noblecynic, one day you too will be old and unable to work

and then some other greedy young person will be looking to grab your home and you'll understand the cruelty of telling an elder to give up their place and just go buy some damn trailer in the middle of kansas because they don't deserve to live in a nice place anymore

[alittlelark]

19. We have the same ordinance here...

3-4 neighbors I know of were able to cash out of their homes (1/20th the taxes after 15 or so years) and moved out of state or to more rural areas. Nary a reverse mortgage in the bunch.

It is a great idea, but the implementation sucks.

[gateley]

7. And I'll bet your salary won't go up 40%. Shit like this fries me. nt

[lpbk2713]

8. Although the people who are supposed to control this sort of thing

....those people in city, county, and state governments, get hefty raises regularly whether they do a good job or not. And they go off laughing all the way to the bank. THAT is what pisses me off.

:grr:

[dysfunctional press]

10. fuel costs for county vehicles goes up...insurance costs go up...

etc. etc...

[tyedyeto]

14. So does consulting fees for studies done

but never implemented.

That is where I have seen much of the waste of property taxpayers dollars go.

[tyedyeto]

12. The property taxes where I live have gone from...

approx. $850 to $1900 in the 4 years I have lived here.

I've been outraged mainly because I moved from California where property taxes can only be increased by 1% per year unless that property is sold. In the 25 years I owned property there, many years there was no increase. So, a doubling of property tax in 4 years is troubling to me.

[gateley]

15. I never knew that about CA property tax. That is such a good thing!

It leaves me shaking with fury when we're informed "Gotham City Electric needs to increase rates by 12%" then "Gotham County will be raising property taxes an average of 25%" then "Gotham State sales tax will be increased 7%".

I'm thinking -- where do I get the money to pay for these increases?

The reasoning is because THEY need the added funds to meet "increasing costs". Well, I don't get any added funds to meet MY increasing costs!

Something is really wrong.

[1932]

20. CA property taxes benefit corporations and the very wealthy -- they go up when you sell.

Who doesn't sell property? Rich families who keep their houses for decades and generations and companies which merge or sell ownership in the company owning the property rather than selling the property.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

33. I am neither a corproation or a "rich" person...

and I benefit greatly from Prop. 13. In fact, if there were no Prop. 13 I would have been forced to sell my house long ago and move away from the City I was born and raised in.

I am one of the working poor who lives in a house that I grew up in that happened to have been bought back in the 60s, a house that now would sell for $625,000+. This is very, very common here -- almost everyone I went to school with who still lives in the City has done the same thing. It is one of the only ways a working class person can stay in San Francisco, anymore.

Thank the gods for Prop. 13.

[1932]

50. ...and California schools are rapidly declining and the tax burden is regressively apportioned.

If corps paid their fair share and if young families and new home-owners in the last five years didn't have to pay taxes at the highest property valuations, you could have good schools, great infrastructure and a fairly apportioned tax burden.

[blitzen]

22. not such a good thing....just google "Proposition 13"

that CA law screwed up California big-time...same thing happened in my home state of OR

from wiki:

California public schools, which in the 1960s had been ranked #1 nationally in student achievement, have fallen to 48th in many surveys of student achievement.<6> Some have disputed Proposition 13's direct role in the move to state financing of public schools, because schools financed mostly by property taxes were declared unconstitutional in Serrano vs. Priest, and Proposition 13 was then passed partially as a result of that case.<5> California's spending per pupil was the same as the national average until about 1985, when it began dropping, which led to another referendum, Proposition 98, that requires a certain percentage of the state's budget to be directed towards education.<3>

Public libraries have seen a decrease in funding from cities.<5> Fire departments were gutted because of a drastic loss of funds. Police departments received generally the same amount of funding, from 15% in 1978 to 16% in 1995.<5> Cities also cut water, gas and electricity expenses.<5>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proposition_13#Aftermath_in_California

[Selatius]

29. As far as public education goes, Prop 13 was an attempt to equalize opportunity.

Prior to that, most funding for the school came from the county or city government, and most of that local revenue for the schools came in the form of property taxes.

This meant folks who live in a wealthy county like Orange County get better public schools because of a wealthier property tax base than folks who live in Kern County or in a poor urban ghetto like Watts. If anything, poor counties would have to levy very high property taxes just to attempt to match the spending that wealthy counties achieve for public schools, and in many cases, the poor county can't even do that.

Proposition 13 was stupid because it was incomplete. The result? Shit hit the fan. If the Proposition also demanded that the California state government provide funding to poor counties to off-set the disparity between themselves and wealthy counties, it would be a whole different story, but they still haven't achieved even that as far as I know.

[tyedyeto]

47. That is bullshit! Like right wing talking points do you?

FYI, wikipedia is not an authenticated source.

[Zynx]

39. Was there a comensurate increase in the value of your home?

Arizona real estate prices are up dramatically from where they were 5 years ago. That could explain a good portion of it.

[FourScore]

13. I live in Ithaca and mine went up 25%.

NY is killing itself with these outrageous property taxes. Where I live, we pay 4.8%!!! Trust me, I feel your pain.

[alittlelark]

18. We pay $9200 a year.

Sounds like you are just catching up.

[Solar_Power]

35. All in, my total property taxes are $14,500/yr

which is legal robbery

[rucky]

43. sweet Jesus!

i hope every student in your school district has their own private tennis court.

[FourScore]

45. I'm with ya' on that one Solar_Power!

BTW, welcome to DU! :hi:

[mod mom]

46. We're close to yours, but we're in an excellent school system and it beats paying

private school X 2.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

23. I was speaking to a guy in my little town the other day.

He has a average, for around here, home. He pays $13,000/yr in taxes.

It is at times like these that I reflect upon the possibility that my dream of home ownership might be a nightmare.

[alittlelark]

25. Where is this?

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

27. NJ

Some of the highest property taxes in the country.

[Selatius]

30. 13,000/year in property taxes? Where I live, you'd be better off renting for 500/month

Then again, I don't know the prevailing rent levels in your area, but 13,000 seems steep.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

32. Yeah, but this is NJ.

Some of the highest property taxes in the country. A legacy of the debt Christie Whitman ran up when she was governoretta.

[ProudDad]

26. Thank those good capitalists

the real estate speculators who've bid up house "prices" through the roof.

The same is happening to us in Arizona except our taxes are going to be jumped too. Right now were paying over $11 per 1000 assessed value...

[NashVegas]

34. Median Household Income - $79k Per Year

Per capita - $39k - about $15k more per year than Nashville, TN, where property taxes are low and average about $1500.

Oh, the horror.

[JuniperLea]

36. That's chicken feed...

I pay roughly $9.50 per $1000 in appraised value! $3.00 would be a freaking bargain in Los Angeles!!!

[Xenotime]

48. This big government is getting out of hand.

Everywhere across the nation taxes are going up.

[DemoTex]

49. When I left Dallas in 2004, we were paying $14,500/year ...

On a 2240 sq ft house, and a 22/100 acre lot. Gov. Bu$h's Texas: No state income tax. Yay!