Rural life is changing

[Boondox]

In Vermont, till the 60's, the law of the land was "One Village, One Vote." But then it was ruled unconstitutional and voting was capitation based like everywhere else. The problem is that Chittenden County, where Burlington is located, has more votes than the rest of the state combined. Since Burlington is now populated mostly from people who came from elsewhere and who have the big city needs, as Burlington goes so goes the state. It's like the rest of us have no say at all. There was talk of denying the vote in local affairs till you lived here five years (and hopefully got acclimated in the meantime), but that's just wishful thinking.

The relative difficulty of business travel to and from Vermont has slowed growth somewhat, but all we can hope for is the newcomers act intelligently. Example: keep a few trees in place to break up the outline of your prize home instead of cutting them all down so your home sticks out like a pus colored carbuncle.

Pete

www.GatewayToVermont.com

 

[glennmac]

I have lived all over the USA in many different environments from big city to suburbs to small town to country. Country is the best, and I sympathize with everyone's sentiments. But you're all just shouting into a hurricane unless you stop population growth. And I bet you wouldn't like the effective alternatives to accomplish that.

 

[cowboydoc]

Gordon,
I cleared alot of the ground and planted grass for pasture. I put in two ponds because the runoff was so bad it was destroying the little bit of topsoil that was left. Terraced some of it too to control runoff and had a well drilled on it so I could water the livestock and ran power to it. Other than that the only roads are the trails made by the cattle!!! They've raised everybodies and alot of people are fighting it. Mine is one of the worst. What is so stupid about this whole thing is that my property isn't even zoned for residential or commercial. It's strictly agriculture which means you can't even build on it if it's less than 40 acres. We brought this up to the assessor and he said he had talked to the zoning board and all we had to do was file the papers and they would rezone it residential. In his own words he told us at a meeting that that's what that property could be worth if the right person had it. That's when I told him to buy it! They are basing property on what it could be worth not what it actually is. Problem is they just don't care. If you fight it the county just pays for their lawyers and such so no incentive for them not to raise the values. Pretty sad that the people that are supposed to be working for the people are always working against the people.

 

[skent]

And if you do win the appeal to the assessment this time, they (the tax office) will come through in 3 years and up your value again anyway! (if it's like here in MD). Back in 88 we fought what we considered too high a tax value. Took lots of time and money. We won (somewhat). Three years later when the tax boys came around again, we ended up in worse shape than we were before.

Steve

 

[Boondox]

The wife and I are doing our part! Met relatively late in life, so decided to raise dogs instead of kids. Might add a couple of pigs and goats next year.

Pete

www.GatewayToVermont.com

 

[Bird]

Steve, I think that's a fairly common thing. Even back in the '60s in Anchorage, my dad appealed the assessment on his house there, telling them he'd be glad to sell it to anyone who wanted it for the assessed value; no takers, but he still lost the appeal. And in '88, I appealed my assessment in Dallas (actually had the house up for sale at the time). I guess you could say I "sorta" won; they lowered the assessment 5%, and when I actually sold it, it was for 13% less than the lowered assessment./w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif

Bird

 

[StoneHeartFarm]

Cowboydoc

Does your mailing address match the property address? Efffectively making you a local? Does the local government have designs on your land? I have long suspected that taxes are a way of grabbing land that the government wants or wants in "local" hands. I have noticed assessments on lots around here sometimes are quite high on properties owned by people from certain cities or areas. Chicago, being one. For instance, Black Acre is assessed at $500.00. White Acre, right next door and essentially identical is assessed at $1,000.00. Black Acre is owned by a local or someone from someplace no one every heard of. White Acre's owner has a Chicago address.

SHF

 

[cowboydoc]

SHF,
Actually the property we are contesting is about three miles from where I live. It's still in the same county as my physical address but it's under the corporation name. They knew it was me though because they send all the info. to my house and the assessors assistant is one of my patients. I don't think they have designs on it but there are alot of politics going on here as well. The county wanted a new courthouse and the voters shut them down on that. Right after that failerd for the third time you saw another huge increase in property values.

 

[StoneHeartFarm]

Cowboydoc

Corporation name, eh? It's not uncommon for business property to be assessed higher than property owned by individuals. Maybe they figure a medical corporation can afford to pay?

SHF

 

[cowboydoc]

SHF,
Great points although it's not a medical corporation. All the farmers around here are all corporate as well with the exception of a few. Also it's not classified as commercial property it's still classified as agriculture ground and around here that is where the tax base comes from as far as to what the ground is zoned as. If that 2 mill. assessment stands the taxes would be about $3,000 a month!