Sunny Days in Pittsburgh: 145 (Not 59)

[Katiana]

This is wierd. I just posted a long reply, and it didn't show up! Drat!

No, I do not know exactly how much I pay in sales taxes. There are tables to use when you do your income tax.

Schools are funded by property tax and appropriations from the state general fund. The governor just "froze" property tax so that as assessed valuations go up, prop tax can't go down. He is in hot water, because all our tax increases are supposed to be voted for, and we didn't vote for that. I, for one, think the schools need all the help they can get; I am tired of paying taxes for parks, open space, recreation, etc and then hearing there is no money left for education! That is my soapbox.

Some other things are covered by property tax as well, such as fire protection.

Sales taxes provide the bulk of the money for municipalities in Colorado, and for special taxing districts like the RTD (public transit); baseball stadium; football stadium; scientific and cultural facilities, and others. State sales tax is 3% but there are very few areas where that is the only sales tax. Most communities in metro Denver have a sales tax of ~ 8% - 9%. In my community, there is no local sales tax on food. Counties can also levy sales taxes.

Comparing is worse than apples to oranges. The one thing in favor of sales tax as opposed to property is that you can watch your spending. You don't get people on fixed incomes, such as the elderly, paying out big bucks for property tax.

Death and Taxes.

[CaptainObvious]

Originally Posted by Hopes

My husband says that there is currently a consideration to switch to eliminate real estate tax and switch to a sales tax system. I'm not sure how I feel about it. I really wish there were statistical comparisons.

I am loving that idea. It can't start soon enough. At least with a high sales tax and no property tax, I can control the amount of taxes I pay. If I don't want to pay tax, then I won't buy the item. Obviously, we can't avoid buying groceries and the like, but most of us could avoid buying the "luxury" type items like the latest 65" TV. Under that system if I need to save a few bucks on taxes, I just don't buy the TV. Under the current system, the tax man cometh by sitting my rear end at home every night- whether or not I buy a darn thing. The trick would be to get the new sales tax rate right so we don't end up with a real tax increase. I've heard discussions of 10-12% across the board. However, most talk I have heard surrounding this issue pertains to eliminating the state INCOME tax and replacing it with a sweeping sales tax.

Cap