Property Taxes

[webbmeister]

$7,500 per year on a 2200 sq. ft. house in a distant suburb of Chicago. Plus $900 per year between my wife and me for tolls on roads that were paid for decades ago. :-(

 

[mikim]

Glenn -- I think your points 1 & 2 concern only the tax rate --- Bastrop county just doubled the valuation on some of my property and the in-laws too - no big change in rate but the amount owed sure jumped! If they don't gitcha comin'; they'll gitcha goin'.
mike

 

[GlennT]

Mikim: I'm sure treading on thin ice when it comes to interpreting tax law, but I'll quote from a little pamphlet I picked up at the Assessor's Office. It's entitled Texas Property Taxes and it's issued by the Texas Property Tax Division Information Services. Page 4, column 2: "The appraised home value for a homeowner, who qualifies that homestead for exemptions in the preceding year and the current year, may not increase more than 10 percent per year since that home's last reappraisal as the owner's qualified homestead." Page 2, column 2: "Once you receive an over-65 homestead exemption, you get a tax ceiling for that home on your total school taxes. The school taxes on your home cannot increase as long as you own and live in that home. The tax ceiling is the amount you pay in the year that you qualify the over-65 homeowner exemption. The school taxes on your home may go below the ceiling, but the school taxes will not be more than the amount of your ceiling." We purchased our acreage from an elderly woman whose school taxes had been frozen for many years. During the past four years, our total taxes have increased 10% each year. I suspect that we might be saying the same thing and that my choice of words was not the best. Anyway, I turned 65 recently and this stuff is going to kick in. HURRAH FOR GEEZERHOOD!! I'M READY!!

 

[mikim]

OK there's the rub --- my property there is not my homestead right now as I don't live on it yet --- and the in-laws have more than their homestead too --- so to be protected by the 10% rule ya gotta live on it and put the homestead exemption on it. -- otherwise ya get nailed like I did. I fought a raised valuation 1 year --- what a joke! -- kangaroo court --
mike

 

[GlennT]

Mikim: I'm sorry; I know how you feel. In retirement on a fixed-income, we appreciate restrictions which protect us somewhat from sudden and dramatic escalations of our taxes. Although I suppose it sounds rather naive (and at risk of being labeled a Polly-Anna), we feel that our taxes here in Texas are reasonable and we do want to do our part to support our communty and our government. We are learning that on a fixed income it's more difficult than we anticipated to adjust expenditures and lifestyle to accomodate significant changes in anything. We lived in Wisconsin for almost three decades and in Minnesota for a number of years previous to that and we were accustomed to our tax rates jumping around like crazy from year to year. I don't know if you're going to believe this and I don't have the papers to substantiate it anymore, but there was one infamous year while living on our lakeshore property in Western Wisconsin, when our total property taxes increased 24%! That's right, 24%! It wasn't a surprise, of course; we knew it was coming. Basically, the situation was the result of ultra-conservative taxpayers being able to reject proposals to improve school buildings, waste-treatment facilities, and other desperately-needed things until finally both the state and federal governments stepped in and said DO IT!! NOW!! I still remember the sinking feeling in my stomach when I opened the envelope and actually read the amount in the tax statement. Bad day at Black Rock.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

As Thomas in NH. can attest to ,there is nothing like living in a college town to push up taxes. Here in Middlebury, Vt. assessed value- $225,400 . Municipal tax-$1,714.46. State schl tax-$2360.18. Local schl tax $2445.62. Grand total $7344.66 and that does not include water and sewer, rubbish pickup or recycling.

 

[Bird]

Glenn, even in Texas, things like that can happen. When we lived in town our school taxes jumped 25% one year so they could build the fanciest high school football stadium and natatorium in that part of the country! I guess since the football coach was the highest paid "teacher" on the staff, he really needed fancier facilities./w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif