Property Taxes

[dooleysm]

I agree with Bird, although I have even heard of them changing appointments to make it less convenient for you to meet them. Good luck.

Fortunately, my job allows me pretty good flexibility as far as taking off when I need to, so I don't think they'll be able to play those games with me. They're going to have to fight with my dad too, and he lives and works within a mile or two of city hall.

 

[mbohuntr]

I guess someday I'll rent, or buy a big travel trailer. You can't complain that they raised your tax bill 1200%, only that they are sticking it to you harder than your neighbor...I miss my own property to hunt on, first time in over 30 years. I just can't justify paying that much for dirt...

 

[Bird]

There's an interesting article in the Dallas Morning News today Dallas County appraiser: Property values falling with fewer new buildings going up. Of course I live one county north of Dallas County so it'll be interesting to see what our appraisor does.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

We get appraised every 3 yrs. They use nearby sale prices that are supposed to be comparable to your property / house size. I fought my last one and got it reduced some, they were using property not even close to me in comparison, using larger houses, larger lot sizes. I appealed and sent them the tax assessment of nearby houses and properties that were more similar to mine. It helped. Our county is also facing large budget problems, like everyone, yet they keep spending money on things that really could wait.

 

[dmccarty]

They were looking at doing something like that for a proposed highway here. Make a wide 'no build' corridor for a few years and wait for the state to decide where the highway would go. A lawyer spoke up at one of the meetings and advised that it would open them up to all kinds of 'takings' lawsuits and that nipped it in the bud.

Four years ago a group of like mind people that they named The Coalition. They hate business and developers. Which is really funny since the mayor is a developer. Go figure. And of course they all live in houses built by developers.

These bozos have increased our taxes far more than other counties and are spending the money on highly paid Human RELATIONS and environmental staff. The also are spending $180,000 of Federal money, thank you all for helping, as well as a another $180,000 of local tax money. This is a full size bus that will run for 18 months. The bus line only runs on one road from one town to another. The full sized bus has at most 30 people a day. Do the math and that works out so that each rider is taking $666.67 a month to serve.

And this is Progress....

These idiots have been told that the 3,000 foot buffer will cause lawsuits and cost the tax payers. This 3,000 foot buffer is being proposed for a section of FOUR lane high way......

The Coalition fought against a zoning change which would have allowed a Walmart or Target shopping center along this highway serving the north part of the county. This would have brought in quite a bit of tax revenue. So now people have to drive to other counties to shop. How is that Green? How does driving farther protect the environment?

If they really gave a rats behind for the "poor" people, their words not mine, that are served by the bus, the bus drives right by the land were the shopping center was to be located. Gee that could have helped. And there is no bus service to ANY retail Just from town to town which serves a very limited and specific population.

These are issues in the next election.

Later,
Dan

 

[mjarrels]

Best public transportation I ever saw and used were in third world countries.

mark

 

[bdeboer]

Is the land in Ag or Forestry? Here in Ohio we do not have to show our income figures if we own 10 acres or more. They do check that land is being cut for hay etc., and there is a card we have to fill out or they will remove our ag tax rates.

 

[dooleysm]

I did just talk to someone at the assessor's office and it appears that they have changed my classification from ag to residential. I'm still going to appeal and argue that I'm using some of the 10 acres for agriculture. I have about a half acre in garden, of which I take some to the farmer's market. I raise about 50 chickens for meat and eggs. I have plans to put most of the rest of the land into a pasture for goats. I have gotten started on that project as far as moving dirt for a shelter/barn. Another probably 2 acres is wooded/runoff ditch.

I would agree that about 1.5 acres is residential (including house/yard/driveway), but I don't agree that the balance is residential.

 

[2manyrocks]

That's what they do. They look for new revenue by changing classifications, rates, assessments. There are lots of old folks in the city who can't pay their property taxes because the city keeps jacking their taxes.

And our bozos who ran the city council 20 years ago have now made their way to being bozos in the state house of representatives. I was looking for a state bill the other day and found a bunch of their proposed bills, and then I remembered the things they'd propose in the city council when I used to watch the council meetings.

 

[charlz]

I did just talk to someone at the assessor's office and it appears that they have changed my classification from ag to residential. I'm still going to appeal and argue that I'm using some of the 10 acres for agriculture. I have about a half acre in garden, of which I take some to the farmer's market. I raise about 50 chickens for meat and eggs. I have plans to put most of the rest of the land into a pasture for goats. I have gotten started on that project as far as moving dirt for a shelter/barn. Another probably 2 acres is wooded/runoff ditch.

I would agree that about 1.5 acres is residential (including house/yard/driveway), but I don't agree that the balance is residential.

Here you have to show 3 years of 'Ag' income to get an Ag property tax classification. I would definitely appeal and maybe showing some type of farm income would help.

How is the land zoned? Did they re-zone you to a residential type zoning and thus are saying you need to be taxed for residential?