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Incorrect, property taxes don’t go down because government spending always goes up. If property values go down the city government finds a way to not adjust dow
by rdtwo 7y ago
Incorrect, property taxes don’t go down because government spending always goes up. If property values go down the city government finds a way to not adjust down or increase rates. You could sue and get them to readjust down but next year they will just reset you back and you have to do it again guaranteed that it will cost you more to fight than to pay.
- seanmcdirmid 7y agoProperty taxes have actually gone down before, but in order for the government to remain solvent, they often raise the rate for the next year if they can do it automatically. Or they can play shenanigans with appraisal values, but then fairness comes into play (e.g. if my $100k house is taxed as much as the $200k house nearby, but the $200k house is taxed exactly as it should be). For property taxes to play their secondary role of forcing people to put their property to productive use (as opposed to using them for speculative investing), the tax is perfectly able to go up and down depending on the assessed value of the property. Of course, local governments also depend on the revenue, which becomes their primary purpose these days. However, societies that lack a property tax (e.g. China) suffer from a lot more speculative bubbles, making the tax useful in itself even if its revenue wasn’t significant.