Why do tractors cost more in New England?

[gbob]

Well, will someone answer the bloody question?

It's "wicked" cold in N.E. and the winters are "wicked" long, which means that in order to keep their .265 acre lot homes warm, they have to pony up alot of cash in the fall to purchase oil to keep the house toasty warm. So this means that tractor sellers have to "mark-up" the price on their equipment to pay for the oil that heats their home.
/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

But seriously, if you really are serious about a tractor, here are three options for you:
1. Bernie Arbiar is located in N.H. and sells DFs out from his garage. Therefore, could save you a "wicked" alot of money.
2. Grahmam Sleiker is located in Bolton, MASS. He sells JMs out of his garage.
3. You can buy my 28hp JM. 2002, less than 100 hours. I'm moving to MASS this summer and if I don't sell my JM here in Virginia, I'll take it with me to MASS. I'm relocating to Amherst, which is in the Western part of MASS. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif Not looking forward to the "Nor'eastern storms."

gbob

 

[JCA]

Hey gbob, your makin' me feel stupid. Not that it's that hard to do...

I can't figure out what "DF" and "JM" stand for. Combine those letters differently and I'm okay...I know what a "JD" is, and an "MF" (or, anyway, an "M-F"). But DF and JM I can't figure out.

Thanks,
Jim

 

[Junkman]

Bring it to Amherst and when you hear the prices that the local dealer there sells tractors for you are bound to get top dollar for your. All this is hear say, because I am only repeating what I have heard from people that have tried to purchase a tractor from this dealer. I have never tried to purchase from him and have only stopped there once to look at a machine. The price was more than I was willing to pay and I just left.

 

[JimR]

Land prices and houses have sky-rocketed in central Ma. Dealers feel they do not need to discount their prices. Someone is going to buy the tractors no matter what. In 1976 it cost me $33,000 to have built a new 26'x46 ranch house. In 1993 I pumped another $100,000 into it for a 2 story 3 car garage and a second story on the house. My neighbor just sold their house for $465,000 a few weeks ago. Mine is quite similar to theirs. With prices going up so quickly it is no wonder that dealers do not need to deal on tractors. Only the rich can afford to move into these houses now. So a tractor is a drop in the bucket to them. For the little guy it is a different story.

 

[Junkman]

Wait till you get the tax bill.... you might just find that you can't afford the taxes in ten year for the home you have lived in most of your life. This is a common problem for many older people in communities that have had property values skyrocket in recent years. This has just happened to my neighbor.

 

[lablovers]

Thats why we passed Prop. 13 in California. You can never give the politico's enought. /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

 

[Junkman]

MA passed Prop 2 1/2, but if you add to your home, that gives them the right to re assess it and that is where they can get you. If you don't make any changes, you are relatively safe unless your town votes to over ride the Prop 2 1/2 limits. Usually this is done to increase the school budget.
I now live in CT and the school budget is about 90 % of the towns expenses. We have no Police Department and the Fire Department is all volunteer. Police protection is by the State Police on a as needed basis. The town does have a road department for road maintenance and they do run a transfer station for rubbish. That is the total extent of town services. We are a rural town and when the children are educated, the homes are sold and the family moves out because the taxes are too high. It costs $7500 per student. CT now re assesses property every 4 years by state law. It used to be every 10 years.

 

[JCA]

Hi folks. I know this is OT, but I'll keep it short. There's a real easy answer to this property tax mess, but no one seems to be talking about it. PTs should be based not on some abstract "assessed value" but on purchase price. If you paid $33,000 for your home, you pay taxes, at whatever mil rate makes the budget work, on $33,000. If you just put in a $100,000 addition, the basis goes up to $133,000. If you buy that house today for $450,000, you pay taxes on $450,000. This whole idea of assessed value is just an abstraction--a number dreamed up by a bureaucrat. Taxes ought to be based on a real number--what somebody actually paid.

Does anyone have laws like this? If not, why not? What am I missing?

Jim

 

[lamarbur]

this doesn't work. Mass taxation dept, as part of their formula for reimbursements to towns, does exactly this. It ends up seriously crippling towns. In Holland, with lot's of reservoir frontage, use to have 400 cottages. Over the last 30 years, one by one, the cottages were sold and rebuilt into full year round homes. They took the original bldg price (all were around 15,000 in the early 60's), then restated the new rebuilt full time costs of say 130,000 on avg. Now, Holland suffers badly because on paper, the town looks rich and therefore doesn't need chapter 90/66/70 funding., What they get is a pitance of what they need. In the meantime, the town has the highest per capita tax in the commonwealth. THey have driven off just about all the original people now and those who have been there 30 years or just over. The school system gets 92 cents per dollar which is ridiculous as you can't run other towns needs in a reasonable fashion.. Even though last week, the school was forced to accept a new formula which in essence lowers Hollands cost 40,000 a year.. The new crowd coming in don't know any difference and think everything is just beautiful.. They have the attitude ( and I hear it almost daily) in Westborough or some other town within 50 miles of Boston, we pay 5000 a year, Here, we pay 3600 a year. True, but false. IN the 50 mile range is full time police/fire/ambulance/highway/garbage pick up/library and whatever else. Here, you pay to pump septic system, pay to open road/driveway., pay to ahve a dumpster and all the rest.. If you add it up, it's the same and sometimes a little more, as now these people have to drive those long distances back to work. So long story short, actual payments as doen by state taxation dept. doesn't wrok fairly at all.

 

[Bob_Skurka]

JCA you are also missing the concept of self improvement without a permit. If I, because I am handy, add a bathroom, an exercise room and a family room to my basement, I increase the value. Nobody will argue that.

However, if my brother, who is NOT handy does it, he hires a contractor who pulls a permit. The city reassesses his land because a permit was pulled. The city does NOT reassess me because I didn't pull a permit due to the fact that I just did the work myself in my spare time.

There are dozens of ways around the program you outline, but this is the obvious way.