Patriotranter's Weblog

In the United States property taxes are currently calculated based on how much a home is worth. This is probably the most asinine system that could ever have been put together.

Assessed value of a home is based on an arbitrary number derived from calculations on the size of the home, the size of the lot, upgrades made to the home and lastly how much the home was purchased for. The key problem with this is that just because someone is willing to pay a certain amount for the home does not mean the home is worth anywhere near that amount of money. People willing to pay way more than a home is worth is one of the key reasons the real estate market imploded. Second only to avaricious unethical lending institutions.

If you pay any attention to the news, or if you are a homeowner, something that will crop up fairly often is people suing for unfairly assessed property. Rightly so too because technically property only has value to the people who live on it and those who wish to buy it. But if the government deems that your property would serve the greater good being used in a manner different than which you use it. They (the government) can come in and take your property from you by using the so called eminent domain clause. Now under this clause the government is supposed to buy your home from you at a fair market value, although it must purely be coincidence that what the government decides is fair value when trying to buy your house in no way matches what they decide is fair value when assessing the taxes on your property.

The only fair way for government to collect property taxes should be based on

• The square footage of the lot
• The square footage of structures used for actual residence
• The square footage of structures used for storage

Each of these criteria would be calculated at a different rate. For example you may be charged $.10 for each square foot the lot requires, $1.00 for each square foot of residential structures and another $.50 for each square foot of storage structure (ie. barns, sheds, carports, unfinished garages or basements and such)

Obviously the actual rate schedule would vary per geographical region and actual usage of the property. Although the taxing agency should be responsible for including an itemized report on how your tax dollars were being spent. Including all the necessary municipal functions, Police, Fire, Road Maintenance, etc. Any time the particular government wanted to increase budgets for these agencies they should be required to enclose a prospectus explaining how it would benefit the tax payer, how much it would raise the particular taxes for them and a ballot so the tax payer could vote directly on whether they approved of the new budget or not.

School taxes would be calculated in the same manner but be collected separately for the purpose of a more accurate budget and the ability to keep a more focused eye on how the school district was performing financially and academically.

With a socialized health program the hospital and medical maintenance costs could also be absorbed this way thus freeing the average family of the hardship of dealing with insurance companies and the bureaucrat filth that work with them. I discuss Socialized Medicine elsewhere in this blog

Now if you think that this program is allowing renters to evade taxes you are wrong. Rented properties would be taxed at a higher rate than regular owned properties to compensate for excessive enforcement required at these properties. Every home must meet certain building and livability codes and rented properties are more likely to violate these codes than properties lived in by the home owner. These code violations require more housing inspectors and police and fire enforcement to handle and as such they would be billed appropriately. Higher taxes on rented properties would make it possible to inspect these properties on a yearly basis to ensure they meet codes for health and safety.

Now I know this mini-festo does not cover all aspects of the property tax problem, it is just a simple guideline pointing out that things could be done better than they are now.

If you agree with the idea stated here there is no need to contact me – Contact your local politicians instead and tell them to do something right for a change.

Thank you for your time

PatriotRanter