Quick Hit: Property Tax

When you pause to think about it, Americans get taxed a ridiculous amount (surprising, I know). We get taxed for a litany of things; children, food, clothing, almost any purchase, cars, being able to drive our car, owning a business, being employed by a business, how much money we make, and countless other items. The one thing that continually frustrates me, though, is property.

In some well-to-do areas, citizens are taxed over 5% of their property value. The government (typically county or city) values your property for you, and multiplies the tax rate against the assessed value. Simple math tells us that for those who are taxed at 5%, owning a piece of land for twenty years sees them pay for their land twice (including mortgage), using the value that the authorities provided. If you own it any longer than that, you’re essentially paying rent to the tax leviers. Granted, the average property tax in the United States is considerably less than 5%, so adjust your math accordingly if you happen to live somewhere besides New York or New Jersey.

This leads to two questions:

1) Why is there a need to repeatedly pay for something that you’ve already purchased with your hard-earned money, especially in order to fund questionable functions such as public schools?

2) Using an eighty year old, a 2% property tax, and a property valued at $200,000 (which would likely fluctuate), this person will have paid $320,000 to their government of choice in a lifetime. How is this, or anything remotely similar, acceptable?

Definitely something to ponder.

Getting Started

First, welcome to Treading Lightly. I appreciate you stopping by and hope you’ll make this a regular stop in your internet travels.

Treading Lightly (unfortunately, the URL was taken) is the website of Chris Stouffer, and brings fresh perspective on current events and political happenings. Blog posts will range from the funny to the informative, but will usually end up back where everything started–the Creator or the Constitution.  I’ll post as time allows, but I hope to be able to provide fresh content at least once a day. In the future, I’ll be setting up a Facebook page which perhaps allow you to keep track easier, and possibly a Twitter feed as well if things take off.

The first feature that I’ve posted is called a Back Issue. That involves taking some of my past writings and posting them, typically without editing. I’ll be debuting new features soon, so keep checking back.

Patience, please, as things continue to get established. Feel free to sound off in the comments, on Facebook, or at tnglock at gmail dot com.

Back Issue: Open Letter to Hickman County Times, 11/19/09

I open by saying that I’m not going to sink further into the point-counterpoint debate, as it is endless and in this case fruitless. However, I’d like to elaborate a bit on my closing statement from last time when I mentioned the current administration’s disdain for the Constitution by providing a pertinent example.

Free health care. Sounds good, right? I mean, who wouldn’t want to have to not worry about paying medical bills anymore? Surely free doctors’ visits and prescription drugs are great for America, right? I would contend that the current bill that Obama/Pelosi/Reid are force-feeding the American people is not only endangering the free market system but in clear violation of the Constitution. The ways that this bill is socialist and wealth redistributing are too many to list here, but I can explain how our leaders have thrown away the highest law in the land.

Back Issue: Open Letter to Hickman County Times, 10/27/09

I take pen in hand to not only question Ms. Dudley’s propositions in her letter to the editor last week, but to provide a differing opinion on the matter.

It appears that by accepting the Nobel Peace Prize, President Obama has discredited what used to be an honorable and respected award. I’ve struggled to find proof of his “extraordinary” efforts in international diplomacy, unless one refers to his trip to Denmark to lobby for his home city’s Olympic bid, or perhaps his bow to King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, which was most certainly a new tactic in foreign relations.