Pennsylvania
Regular reassessment should be the law
When school districts and local government increase tax revenue with ''spot reassessments'' it's patently unfair.
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you can NOT spot reassess a property.
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Hold on to your hats Pennsylvanians, Uncle Eddy's at it again. Won't be long...we'll be paying more property taxes. But maybe, if we hold our breath, the casino money will help pay those increases.
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Fort Huachuca, AZ
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If the State was serious about eliminating school property taxes this would not be an issue.
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More frequent reassessments are NOT the answer. Reassessments are very expensive for the taxpayers, are subjective, and are quickly outdated. Property taxes are inherently unfair and tremendously regressive and need to be replaced with a system that accounts for a person's ability to pay. More information on the grassroots effort to accomplish this is on the Pennsylvania Taxpayers Cyber Coalition website at http://www.ptcc.us .
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I live in carbon county we were reassessment about 4 years ago.my school taxes went from around six hundred dollars to now $1281.25 and still the school keeps putting it up everyear.My house was built in 1923 I have a small yard no garage.I hate to even think how much someone with a new house and a big yard has to pay.
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That's his answer to school property taxes? Reassessments mean higher property taxes, which are high enough, thanks. It's costly to the county. Harrisburg needs to keep their hands off the locals.
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Reassessments do not always mean higher taxes. In RI they reassess statewide every three years by state law. A friend there has had property taxes lowered in each of the last two reasessments. her house is in town and has not increased in value as much as the beach properties, so the beach properties and those in the nicer areas are paying a greater portion of the overall property tax burden.
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PA SB 1247, which would have largely prevented this practice, was recently vetoed by Rendell.
http://www.timesleader.com/news/Spot_reassess... |
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Has the head of our corrupt state government ever done anything that the MC puppets haven't praised?
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When a home is sold... The value paid should become it's new (actual) value for tax purposes. A person who bought a home years ago for a certain value, has not realized one $ unless it's sold. One could argue your old home has a higher market value. Yes indeed, but only when it's sold. Nice to say my $40,000 home is now worth $100,000. But it's not worth a nickel until you cash that out.
Even if not using this idea 100% it should certainly be factored into consideration when changing this taxing game. |
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Some states do it that way. But it doesn't address the basic fairness issue where neighbors with indentical houses making identical use of government resources could be paying dramatically different taxes to support those same government services they receive.
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True, but.. IDENTICAL USE OF GOVERNMENT RESOURCES This would not be the case for a fella I know who is 45 years old. Never married, no kids and pays over $4,000 in school taxes. I pay the same garbage fee as college kids renting an identical home that is not a 'primary residence'. They generate 6 bags out twice week as opposed to my one bag a week or every other week. I've never ever used the 911 services I'm paying for either. So as you say perhaps we need to break down and identify what resources are in common rather then basing a tax solely on home ownership. Hence I'd prefer less emphasis on property value and more on actual use and itemized fees/taxes for services rendered. Perhaps government needs to target the actual resource users and bill accordingly. Currently the city charges for actual water/sewage usage. Should we not be doing more things like that then a straight tax burden on primary homeowners? That would address the "Fairness issue" for identical neighbors with different needs and requirements. |
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In that the legislature failed to provide real property tax relief tax reassessment on a regular basis becomes valid. If you can afford to remodel, build-on or otherwise improve your property you become subject to higher taxation. Many folks try to hide these things and the longer the interval between assessments the longer they "get away" with it. Newer property owners get screwed when reassessment does not occur by carrying a greater than "fair share" of the tax burden. Also, with the appeal process everyone can challenge the reassessment.
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You can't be serious...Ina general sense, if we used your idea retirees-living-on-a-fixed-inc ome receiving Social Security and Medicare benefits FAR in excess of what they paid into the system and welfare recipients would pay the most, the "rich" would pay the least. I'm in no way an apologist for the current taxation scheme, but society in all its strata have a vested interest in a well-educated, highly-taxed, fully-employed workforce. |
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I agree with PeoplesRepublic of Carbon. Fee for services sounds good on the surface, but our government is based mostly on raising money according to people's ability to pay taxes, not their use of government services. The property tax is a half-a$$ed version of that and creates inequities when their is not regular reassessment and creates problems for longtime owners whose income had declined, i.e. the elderly.
Probably best to do away with property tax altogether and use income tax instead. UK does that, for one.
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Reassessments on the archaic Property tax are nothing but hidden tax increases.
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Seoul, Korea
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Eliminate property tax and the whole process and replace with consumption tax. As Pennsylvanian's do better and consume more, the state has larger coffers and can put money into rainy day fund.
When Pennsylvanian's are doing worse and consume less, public revenues go down and governments and school districts have to implement hiring freezes or utilize rainy day fund. All these governments want are guaranteed annuity stream provided by a fixed asset base returning a certain percentage of money based on millage rate. This give two way process to increase total taxation. It is political suicide to raise millage every year, so now they want to continue to tinker with this reassessment process. Jut get rid of the whole system and go to variable system based on consumption tax. It will force them to become better money managers and allocators of resources. Something that has been seriously missing in Pennsylvania for 70 years. |
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Seoul, Korea
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Judged: 
1 I would amend that to "society in all its strata have a vested interest in a well-educated, FAIRLY-taxed, fully-employed workforce." or "society in all its strata have a vested interest in a well-educated, Consumption-taxed, fully-employed workforce." We all know that generally, as you total income, and total wealth increase, so does your consumption. Taxing consumption then captures a more proportional basis of resource usage in society. |
Consumption tax is a great concept. The more you take the more you pay. I wonder if this would put an end to all the plastic crap we purchase? |
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Personally, I would certainly agree but given the current ingrained reliance on wealth transfer, "highly-taxed," whether income or consumption based, is the only way the goverments can meet the obligations. |
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