Property Tax BS!

[UserRemoved1]

Costs money to run a town govt.

School systems, sewers, water systems, your streets get plowed. Seems entirely logical to me. My tax evaluation went down this year. I lost 30k valuation in last two years. That's less than 10% of my houses real world value. Nonetheless it went down two years in a row. Comparable house sales in the area have me holding very steady in what I paid for my house if I was to sell. Much more than what they are currently assessing. (not bad for a housing market supposed to be in the dumper) What will now happen is that the town will not have sufficient funds to run. Tax rate increases. They are not supposed to have a deficit

If you file for an abatement what do you think your going to save? Nothing. Peanuts typically. Then the tax rate goes up again because once again they don't have the money to run.

[fishbones]

Originally Posted by #^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&

Costs money to run a town govt.

School systems, sewers, water systems, your streets get plowed. Seems entirely logical to me. My tax evaluation went down this year. I lost 30k valuation in last two years. That's less than 10% of my houses real world value. Nonetheless it went down two years in a row. Comparable house sales in the area have me holding very steady in what I paid for my house if I was to sell. Much more than what they are currently assessing. (not bad for a housing market supposed to be in the dumper) What will now happen is that the town will not have sufficient funds to run. Tax rate increases. They are not supposed to have a deficit

If you file for an abatement what do you think your going to save? Nothing. Peanuts typically. Then the tax rate goes up again because once again they don't have the money to run.

If that's the case, they shouldn't say that your real estate tax is based on the valuation of your property. They should be honest and just say that they will tax you whatever they see fit to try to balance their budget. If they need more money, they will just tax you more. No need to come up with some phoney baloney excuse that your property is somehow worth more now even though if you tried to sell it, you'd quickly see that it's worth less than the town thinks it's worth.

[BigFish]

Thanks John....I wanted to say just that but I did not want to waste the energy!

[UserRemoved1]

It is here? My house was valued on the last sale price through MLS. the town will revalue it any time it's sold.

Originally Posted by fishbones

If that's the case, they shouldn't say that your real estate tax is based on the valuation of your property. They should be honest and just say that they will tax you whatever they see fit to try to balance their budget. If they need more money, they will just tax you more. No need to come up with some phoney baloney excuse that your property is somehow worth more now even though if you tried to sell it, you'd quickly see that it's worth less than the town thinks it's worth.

[UserRemoved1]

Closest comparable house was last year on an adjoining street 9 houses away. Same size house, same everything. Sold for what I paid for my house 7 years ago. $30k more than the town currently assesses my house for and I'm taxed at. I'm on the winning side right now...until they either raise the tax rate, or my house is re-assessed in an improving market of comparable houses or it's sold.

Originally Posted by fishbones

If that's the case, they shouldn't say that your real estate tax is based on the valuation of your property. They should be honest and just say that they will tax you whatever they see fit to try to balance their budget. If they need more money, they will just tax you more. No need to come up with some phoney baloney excuse that your property is somehow worth more now even though if you tried to sell it, you'd quickly see that it's worth less than the town thinks it's worth.

[fishbones]

Originally Posted by #^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&

Closest comparable house was last year on an adjoining street 9 houses away. Same size house, same everything. Sold for what I paid for my house 7 years ago. $30k more than the town currently assesses my house for and I'm taxed at. I'm on the winning side right now...until they either raise the tax rate, or my house is re-assessed in an improving market of comparable houses or it's sold.

So you have no problem with paying your RE tax because your making out. Will it bother you if the town decides to raise your taxes on a whim?

Do you really believe that a town should be able to increase your property taxes so they can meet a budget deficit? That's completely insane. If a towns budget is out of whack, the people responsible for that budget need to figure out where they can make cuts to bring it back to where it needs to be. In your scenario, a town can spend itself into a huge deficit and then just increase property taxes to make up the difference. That's not only crazy, but it's illegal.

[UserRemoved1]

If the town sets a budget then gets less tax revenues they either have to get approved cuts from the townspeople in TM or the City councilors (depending on form of govt) have to vote to make the cuts. They can't spend to a deficit where did I say they could??

If it take 20million to run your town and that's the budget they have to stick to it unless town govt votes in a tax increase to avoid cuts if there's a shortfall.

NONE of which can be done "arbitrarily" or "on a whim" as suggested here. It's approved by the town govt and submitted to the state DOR for approval.

Originally Posted by fishbones

So you have no problem with paying your RE tax because your making out. Will it bother you if the town decides to raise your taxes on a whim?

Do you really believe that a town should be able to increase your property taxes so they can meet a budget deficit? That's completely insane. If a towns budget is out of whack, the people responsible for that budget need to figure out where they can make cuts to bring it back to where it needs to be. In your scenario, a town can spend itself into a huge deficit and then just increase property taxes to make up the difference. That's not only crazy, but it's illegal.