Replace Real Estate Based School Tax by Increasing Income and Sales Tax

[pman]

Originally Posted by Moby Hick

I know lots of people make that argument. It is true, but it is also true that if you buy Cheetos, part of your money goes to pay the salary of the Cheetos delivery guy but nobody thinks of themselves as having employed the Cheetos guy. If you really think that rents will drop by 3% after the tax load is switched, then you've had different landlords that I have had.

. whether or not rent will drop is a different story since property taxes may or may not make up 3% of the cost of rent. rent is determined by supply and demand as well as cost, just like home prices. (setting aside mortgage subsidies, interest rates, etc). anyway, I'm not trying to make the argument that we should eliminate property taxes. I think that's an extreme that isn't necessarily good. the state should have diversified revenue and spending needs to be kept in check. i tend to agree with you that we need to be careful about the repercussions of a switch en masse (and I've tried to highlight the ones I can think of). I also agree with you that this would shift the burden onto younger people while relieving boomers...though I'm sure it's more of a seniors vote and there are a lot of them type thing than intentional generational theft.

[scrapp]

Originally Posted by Katiana

Oh for G*d's sake! Many states rely less and less on local property taxes, which, when I took political science were considered extemely regressive, and more on state sales and income taxes to fund schools. Now sales taxes are also considered regressive, and one can make numerous counter-arguments about each of these tax forms, but the Baby Boomers is not a valid argument, IMO.

Yeah, but if you follow the media you'll note that they always play the "grandma is going to lose her home because her property tax is too high now" card when ever this issue is discussed. Clearly the most important issue related to property tax is "protecting seniors"... :-)

[Katarina Witt]

Originally Posted by scrapp

Yeah, but if you follow the media you'll note that they always play the "grandma is going to lose her home because her property tax is too high now" card when ever this issue is discussed. Clearly the most important issue related to property tax is "protecting seniors"... :-)

Do you have some link for that?

I agree that elderly people on low incomes who own their own homes have a concern. Some states have some sort of "homestead exemption" for seniors below a certain income.

[WhoIsStanwix?]

Originally Posted by Lobick

Terry Madonna endorses 1776

I invite folks to scroll to post #12 of that thread. Envelopes sometimes are good for sniffing out BS

There had to have been something wrong with the budget scoring of the bill initially for it to even get considered. A billion dollar shortfall isn't too tough to spot from afar.