Property Tax BS!

[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.