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No, not the usual bitching about how much they are. A different kind of bitching.
Property taxes are obviously driven by how much your house is worth. A more expensive house is going to pay more property taxes than a less expensive house (in the same town). But does that really make sense? We know the majority of our property taxes goes towards education. So what is the correlation of a more expensive house with that? Do the occupants of the more expensive house utilize the education system more than cheaper houses? Do they have more children attending schools? Do they gain more of a benefit?
Same I guess could be said of public services. Do they use more roads that need to be plowed? Do they use parks more? Etc.
It's a form of progressive taxation, same as paying higher marginal income tax rates at higher levels of (earned) income.
In theory buying a cheaper house in a richer town should as a result be a tax arbitrage opportunity, but in practice valuations tend to cancel out the benefit and then some in net present value terms.
It's a form of progressive taxation, same as paying higher marginal income tax rates at higher levels of (earned) income.
In theory buying a cheaper house in a richer town should as a result be a tax arbitrage opportunity, but in practice valuations tend to cancel out the benefit and then some in net present value terms.
Big difference unlike earned income, is that the higher tax paid doesn't give you any more benefits than someone paying 1/3 of what you're paying.
I could almost understand if the taxes went in to the "general" funds. Then it would be like a yearly sales tax on your house. It just seems like a horrible way to fund education at the local level.
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