5 ms·

Property taxes go towards funding local services (schools, police, etc) whose costs tend to be proportional to the population size as well as the local cost of

Property taxes go towards funding local services (schools, police, etc) whose costs tend to be proportional to the population size as well as the local cost of living. How else would you suggest funding these services?

midhhhthrow 4y ago
Taxes should be on luxury items.
- cycrutchfield 4y ago
  Like a big home?
  - midhhhthrow 4y ago
    Yes. You can say no taxes on anything up to 500k and then start property taxes at whatever percentage beyond 500k.
    - cycrutchfield 4y ago
      So states like Alabama would have nobody paying property taxes and in California everybody pays them?
chii 4y ago
via income tax, and via VAT (value added tax - a flat tax across all transactions, aka a consumption tax). Taxes also get levied when property sale makes you profit (capital gains tax). You also charge utility fees by location and service - a flat tax on such levied at the local level. Why should someone who's property is worth more be forced to pay a higher tax for the local school, police, etc, when they don't consume more of those services?
- codefreeordie 4y ago
  Why should a person with a lot of money or a high income pay more for services? On average, they use much less of the services that actually cost big money than the people with lower incomes and less wealth?
Siddarth1977 4y ago
A flat "resident" tax would obviously be the most fair. Everyone has equal rights to the roads, the firefighters, the libraries, etc so simply divide the budget by number of people and everyone pays their fair share. Obviously that wouldn't be tolerable in contemporary America, but there is still something absurd about suggesting that because some houses in my neighborhood sold for more last year, that I should have to pay thousands of dollars more for the local government. The massive inflation in city and state budgets due to soaring property taxes is a huge abuse of the middle class and transfer of wealth to the pork barrel of connected insiders profiting from government contracts, grants, etc.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]

midhhhthrow 4y ago

Taxes should be on luxury items.

cycrutchfield 4y ago
Like a big home?
- midhhhthrow 4y ago
  Yes. You can say no taxes on anything up to 500k and then start property taxes at whatever percentage beyond 500k.
  - cycrutchfield 4y ago
    So states like Alabama would have nobody paying property taxes and in California everybody pays them?

chii 4y ago

via income tax, and via VAT (value added tax - a flat tax across all transactions, aka a consumption tax). Taxes also get levied when property sale makes you profit (capital gains tax). You also charge utility fees by location and service - a flat tax on such levied at the local level. Why should someone who's property is worth more be forced to pay a higher tax for the local school, police, etc, when they don't consume more of those services?

codefreeordie 4y ago
Why should a person with a lot of money or a high income pay more for services? On average, they use much less of the services that actually cost big money than the people with lower incomes and less wealth?

Siddarth1977 4y ago

A flat "resident" tax would obviously be the most fair. Everyone has equal rights to the roads, the firefighters, the libraries, etc so simply divide the budget by number of people and everyone pays their fair share. Obviously that wouldn't be tolerable in contemporary America, but there is still something absurd about suggesting that because some houses in my neighborhood sold for more last year, that I should have to pay thousands of dollars more for the local government. The massive inflation in city and state budgets due to soaring property taxes is a huge abuse of the middle class and transfer of wealth to the pork barrel of connected insiders profiting from government contracts, grants, etc.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]