How it's done. (Manchester, Chester, Washington: sales, real estate market, how much)

[sgthoskins]

If only Washington DC operated Voters Reject Budgets, Pricey Projects In Many Towns - Politics News Story - WMUR Manchester (http://www.wmur.com/politics/18909164/detail.html - broken link)

MANCHESTER, N.H. -- The economy appeared to be on the minds of
many Granite Staters who turned out at Town Meetings Tuesday night to vote
on crucial spending, from budgets to new projects.

Voters said no to budget increases in nearly every category, forcing many towns
to operate leaner than they have before.

The next time you hear some idiot from Massachusetts tell you how much New Hampshire sucks because we have high property tax rates here,
kindly refer them to this article and my words below.

It's not rocket science, people.

Local property taxes are collected locally and spent locally. Spending is voted on at the local level. Don't want to pay higher taxes? Get your friends
and neighbors together and vote against higher spending.

When taxation and spending are dealt with at the local level, out of the reach of career politicians in a fancy building 100 miles away, it is the people
who have the final say as to how much money gets taken out of their wallets, and how that money is spent to best serve the community.

On the other end of the spectrum, you have states like Massachusetts, where the amount of money the state takes away from you is determined
by lawmakers who care more about acting in the best interest of their wealthy, special interest campaign donors than they care about doing
what's best for the people whose money they are spending.

To surrender control of your tax dollars to a bureaucratic, centralized government is to surrender your freedom of choice. It's ironic (though entirely
non-surprising), that it's overwhelmingly "progressive" Democrats - the self-professed defenders of "choice" - who advocate for such a tyrannical
system of government funding.

No thanks.

I'll take the New Hampshire way any damn day of the week, and do everything in my power to keep it intact.

Live free or die, baby.

[GregW]

Self interest trumps public interest again. I think the towns could save huge amounts of money by plowing snow ever other storm instead of every one. What do we need schools and police for anyway?

[seamusnh]

Originally Posted by GregW

Self interest trumps public interest again. I think the towns could save huge amounts of money by plowing snow ever other storm instead of every one. What do we need schools and police for anyway?

Typical liberal. "Damn those voters for exercising their right to vote...."

[seamusnh]

Originally Posted by GregW

I think the towns could save huge amounts of money by plowing snow ever other storm instead of every one.

In what town did the voters vote not to plow the snow? Typical liberal hysteria and hyperbole...

[grimstuff]

Good analysis. I don't mind paying more property taxes if it stays local. The huge problem we have out here in California is the very reactionary 1978 Prop 13. It restricted property taxes to artificially low levels (1%), which meant that local governments had to rely more on sales tax and state government had to rely more on income tax. Now, with the housing bust, local governments are getting hit again with drastically reduced property taxes, since other propositions passed require properties to be reassessed when values are reduced, but not when they are increased. So now, if a home used to be worth 400k is now worth 100k (not uncommon in the Central Valley these days), that's an approximate 3k reduction on local property tax rolls.

I believe if people's taxes stay local they will be more responsible citizens. Prior to Prop 13 there had been some abuse of tax assessment, but not such that a drastically reactionary measure was needed, which in the end, severely exacerbated CA's budget problems and encouraged uncontrolled growth which merely supported a bloated housing market.

The more money that stays local the better: better civic engagement, more control over spending on the services/programs that matter to the community, more monitoring of where the money goes.

[BF66389]

Our town did the same thing. Some smart planning actually (I'm fairly impressed with our budget committee and their suggestions). Basically- we need town-hall to get fixed up. It's so-so; easily justifiable to fix it up now- but it could also wait it out with good maintenance. But rather than raise tax rates to fix it up now; they are going to wait until some prior years projects expenses expire...and then do it.

That's smart- spend what you have...rather than spending what you don't and passing on the burden.

One thing that has been hurting the town budget though is maintenance of roads- the ice, snow, and excess water are really tearing things up; that's kind of a downer.

[Ultrarunner]

Originally Posted by grimstuff

I believe if people's taxes stay local they will be more responsible citizens. Prior to Prop 13 there had been some abuse of tax assessment, but not such that a drastically reactionary measure was needed, which in the end, severely exacerbated CA's budget problems and encouraged uncontrolled growth which merely supported a bloated housing market.

The problem is the legislature willingly abdicated their collective responsibilities to voters regarding property taxes and the voters seized the opportunity presented.

Prop 13 has been the law for 30 years now... it was with us in boom times and bust times.

It's ironic when I asked local city leaders about putting away some of the largess created by the booming real estate market, I was told that property taxes don't really affect revenue... now that real estate has tanked, all we hear is the dire straights were in because revenue is down...

Prop 13 can be easily over ridden with a 2/3 vote of the electorate and even 55% vote for school bonds.

I live in Oakland CA and just about every special assessment property tax measure get approved... we spend nearly 15k per student per year

Prop 13 is the ONLY firewall homeowners have to keep property taxes predictable...

[sgthoskins]

Originally Posted by Ultrarunner

I live in Oakland CA and just about every special assessment property tax measure get approved... we spend nearly 15k per student per year

If that is the case the city should shut down the public school system to lower taxes and let every one send their kids to private school. What a joke. See what liberalism gets you?

[lisa g]

Agreed!