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Old 09-27-2013, 11:01 AM
 
Location: Prescott Valley, AZ
1,929 posts, read 5,877,921 times
Reputation: 1496

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Quote:
Originally Posted by autism360 View Post
Thank you Brian, I am glad you acknowledged that the tax rates are ridiculous, on the bright side hopefully once Mr Microsoft gets the ball rolling by resurrecting the Del Rio project, the area will appreciate substantially.
You're welcome. I am curious as to how people would prefer the property tax assessment ratios to be structured. Right now, it's:

10% for Residential
16% for Vacant Land
19% for Commercial

Frankly, I would like everything to be even to make a level paying field, but that would mean that residential property taxes would have to rise to lower the vacant land and commercial property taxes. Right now, vacant land owners and commercial property owners are subsidizing residential property owners.
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Old 09-27-2013, 11:20 AM
 
Location: Southern Yavapai County
1,329 posts, read 3,519,385 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BriansPerspective View Post

Right now, vacant land owners and commercial property owners are subsidizing residential property owners.
That would depend on how often land is reassessed. In some states, it is reassessed only when it changes hands. Since residential property changes hands far more often, it is reassessed more often and taxes climb. Business property, particularly large holdings change hands seldom, if ever. That means they are paying taxes WAAAAY lower than any relation to the value of the property. This can result in a community having residents paying almost all the taxes, with large businesses paying almost nothing. If there is a cap on how much tax rates can increase, the community ends up having to get by on less and less. Add ever-increasing police and fire pensions, as well as upper municipal staff who ride on their coattails (as do AZ legislators), and the financial is scary.

My guess is that the vacant land higher rate here is based on the premise that most is held by investors or speculators who have a lot of money. Ha Ha. I know a number of people who bought vacant land, thinking they could flip it in two or three years and double their money. Some are foreclosed, some sold it for what they paid, just to get out from under it, and some are still holding on, lowering their prices. and, the obverse side of that coin is perhaps giving the homeowner a break. Hard to imagine, but it could be. ):
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Old 09-27-2013, 11:52 AM
 
Location: Prescott Valley, AZ
1,929 posts, read 5,877,921 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by wretched wrench View Post
That would depend on how often land is reassessed.
All properties are assessed every year. Arizona (at least Yavapai County) does assessments based on an aggregate approach. They take mass averages based on various factors (e.g., Year Built, Square Footage, Location, and probably some others) to determine the value of each parcel. They use sales data as inputs to the aggregate system. The values of each parcel are then calculated based on the various factors. So, it does not matter if a business has not been sold for 15 years. Other businesses will have sold during that time, and those sales will be used to calculate the value of the business that did not sell.

Contrary to what would seem to be the case, if you paid $200K for a property, your property will not be assessed at $200K. The $200K will just go into the aggregate sale data and your assessed value will be spit out based on its factors.
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Old 09-27-2013, 02:42 PM
 
Location: Arizona
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Quote:
Right now, vacant land owners and commercial property owners are subsidizing residential property owners.
This is not entirely accurate in that those that own hundreds of acres with agricultural zoning can pay pennies and I mean pennies so in effect residential, commercial and small raw land owners subsidize them.
The city will easily change agricultural zoning to residential,commercial or industrial zoning for the owner because that means much more revenue for the city but the owner of the ag land can patiently wait for prices to increase without a lot of out of pocket expense before he applies for a zoning change.
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Old 09-27-2013, 03:45 PM
 
Location: Southern Yavapai County
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Quote:
Originally Posted by autism360 View Post
This is not entirely accurate in that those that own hundreds of acres with agricultural zoning can pay pennies and I mean pennies so in effect residential, commercial and small raw land owners subsidize them.
The city will easily change agricultural zoning to residential,commercial or industrial zoning for the owner because that means much more revenue for the city but the owner of the ag land can patiently wait for prices to increase without a lot of out of pocket expense before he applies for a zoning change.
There was some uproar a while back about fake ranchers and their taxes. People who had just enough agriculture or "horse breeding" going on to keep their property zoned agricultural. The horsey set is particularly notorious for this, but they are well-connected, so I think they dodged the bullet.

I considered having a coupla pigs, a few goats and a Llama (coyote patrol) to become agricultural, but the five year establishing period skewed things a bit too much, given the cost of fencing and my predicted lifespan.
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Old 09-28-2013, 02:51 PM
 
Location: Arizona
1,665 posts, read 2,926,100 times
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Quote:
but they are well-connected
Bingo let the little guy subsidize the well connected this is the way it works in politics
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Old 09-28-2013, 09:43 PM
 
Location: Prescott Valley, AZ
1,929 posts, read 5,877,921 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by wretched wrench View Post
... but the five year establishing period skewed things a bit too much, given ...my predicted lifespan.
Ouch! Try to be a little more optimistic Wretched!

Yes, Autism, everybody subsidizes the ranchers and ag-folks. The assessor tried to raise the assessment for the ranchers and they filed a huge lawsuit. I'm not sure whatever happened with that. She has been busy re-assessing land that should not be categorized as ranch/agriculture. That's why you see cows across the street from Fry's grocery store on prime commercial land. It's the ranchers proving to the assessor that they are using the land for grazing.
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Old 09-28-2013, 11:10 PM
 
Location: Southern Yavapai County
1,329 posts, read 3,519,385 times
Reputation: 707
Brian, considering the amortization period to recoup the losses involved in fencing, well drilling, pumping, etc for even a minimal agricultural enterprise, the calendar extends a lot farther than 5 years.
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