Why do tractors cost more in New England?

[JCA]

Okay, then let's just base the taxes on the purchase price, not on the value of improvements. Makes perfect sense to me.

But I'm aware of the problem that THIS would cause. People would be improving their old places instead of buying new ones. The endless cycle of rising property values would be dampened. Sounds like a good thing to me, but the real estate agents--and the politicians who like good "economic growth" numbers--would have a fit. Then again, the third- or fourth-generation lobstermen up here in Maine wouldn't be forced to sell to rich out-of-towners and move inland.

Heard an interesting story yesterday. At a town meeting on fisheries, some rich oceanfront property owners were complaining about how the fishermen were spoiling the view. They had paid good money for those ocean-front houses and didn't want a bunch of lobster traps out there spoiling their tranquility. Said one long-time lobsterman, who was on the commission, "you know, when you're out there in a boat looking back up at the shore, those houses you rich folks are building aren't exactly improving the view, either.

Jim


Jim

 

[lamarbur]

Good, for the lobsterman that brought that up. At least he was thinking.

 

[Junkman]

I believe that states like Maine should give a discount to property owners like lobster fishermen that have lived and worked a industry all their lives there and are being displaced by the new comers. Make is 35% off of the property tax bill if they can prove continual ownership and employment in the state for 20 years. That will help to balance some of the inequities caused by the people that have more money than brains that are driving up the prices of these homes because they have a pretty view of the ocean!

 

[Ledgemere Farm]

I worked for the phone company in Rockland, Maine for a while and got to know quite a few of the local fishermen. All they wanted was to keep their homes on the water where they kept their boats and where their dads kept their boats before them. It's kinda like having your office attached to your house. I empathized with them because my family owns alot of farmland (which they farm) and pay huge taxes on it because some of it happens to be near water. It's not right.

 

[lablovers]

Sorry, but I have to agree with JCA. And the problem that lamarbur talks about in his area should not be a problem if done properly. I believe all you need to do is collect the taxes state wide and disburse them on an equal basis. California does something similar. Problem with the ruling class is that they cannot live within their means and they are to busy selling votes. For example, the gas tax (don't get me started on this) that is to be used for transportation has been diverted to the general fund. Result, little new road building unless it satisfies the greenies and the rest of us sit in traffic for hours burning up needed fuel. Then they want to pass another gas tax and they promise this time it will be used for transportation. Yea right. All you have to do is look at California and why the govenor was recalled. He and the rest of his crowd over spent what was coming in by about 12-15%. Doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what the result of that is.

 

[tc35dforme]

Ayup!!....2nd generation your a 'local' .... 4th generation is a 'native' !!!!

 

[Poppa]

<font color="blue"> </font><font color="blue" class="small">( Ayup!!....2nd generation your a 'local' .... 4th generation is a 'native' !!!! )</font></font>

Well, based on that then I guess I am a native Southern Californian. Great Grandpa had an orange orchard and Grandpa had a cattle ranch. Of course there is no sign of either one now, both are a mixture of stripmalls and suburban houses. Land prices are insane. The house I grew up in cost 16000 new now goes for half a million with no remodeling. Higher with. Spent a lot of time watching all the "Easterners" heading to CA to enjoy the best weather on Earth. Some of my friends hated them. Me? I couldn't blame them. I just waited and when I could I got out.

Went to Western Washington. Watched the same thing happen. I've got friends whose parents moved because their 35000 dollar house on five acres of beachfront is now worth a million dollars and the taxes were about 15000 a year. The farmland is all industrial now. Lots of the same attitudes. Lots of complaining. Me, I couldn't blame them, any of them the comers or the complainers. I just waited and when I could I got out.

Live in Eastern Colorado now. Less Farmland where I am, lots of Winter wheat that hasn't been doing so well with seven years of drought. Some people range cattle. Lots of them sold out a couple years ago when the state was burning. Still, the land is turning to homes and strip malls. Nobody wants to hear about the lack of water in this, the Great American Desert. I didn't either when I moved here. You do hear alot of complaining about how the cost of everything is going up because of all the "Californians" moving here. I laugh and
shrug my shoulders.

Don't know If I'll leave this time. Maybe maybe not. Doesn't matter, now that I have moved as much as I have I guess I don't belong anywhere anymore. Nobody wants me. But I do know this. America is a free country and I have the right to pick up and try my hand anywhere I want. I can bring anything I want with me from wherever I want including the money I make each time I sell my place and move to someplace a little different. And once I have registered to vote I can go about changing the things I find there I don't like. It's called freedom and if that means My view of the night sky gets hindered by the glare of a new Walmart Supercenter then so be it.

I keep thinking about some "Native American" on the east coast, going about his business trying to feed his family. He looks up from his work and sees a shipload of Vikings rounding the point and heading towards "His" beach. I suppose he was probably the first to complain about newcomers.

Tractors cost more because People will pay more.

Mike