Washington Dems push triple property tax increases SB-5770 (house prices, purchase)

[Ruth4Truth]

the state portion of the property tax is entirely devoted to support of public schools,

Really? So, how does the state fund everything else? Where does the tax money for everything else come from? Quick--I need a remedial WA State civics lesson.

And it's all because the middle class isn't paying their fair share of property tax?

Why does this keep happening? This reminds me of when H Clinton's and Obama's secretarial staff were found to be paying more tax then their employers. (And it wasn't because of Dem tax policies.) WA State needs to revisit its tax policies. Taxing people out of their homes isn't the answer.

Originally Posted by MechAndy;

We several families that do a school co-op thing rather than have their kids go to an inferior public school.
I’ve met and spent some time with these kids and I think they have it going on.
They seen more mature, disciplined, possibly smarter, and I’d wager more educated than the other kids when I see them at the softball games.

I think their system does well because it is managed better.
It not like they have a lot of money to throw around so they make what they spend count.

Where's this, Andy? on the Oly Peninsula? Sounds interesting.

[MechAndy]

It is on the Peninsula Ruth.
This co-op school has about 16 kids in it.
It is focused on the younger kinds not yet high school age.
I think the kids are aged 5-13.
Parent participation is one of the main focuses and there is also accredited staff.
The child to instructor ratio is something that you will never find at a public school.
It doesn’t seem politically based as I’ve seen near every group of people there.
I met a good portion of the group watching my friends kids play soft ball at the soft ball fields.

I too found this interesting.
If this is as good as it seems maybe it could duplicated in multiple areas as a norm instead as a great idea that is not available to all.

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by MechAndy

It is on the Peninsula Ruth.
This co-op school has about 16 kids in it.
It is focused on the younger kinds not yet high school age.
I think the kids are aged 5-13.
Parent participation is one of the main focuses and there is also accredited staff.
The child to instructor ratio is something that you will never find at a public school.
It doesn’t seem politically based as I’ve seen near every group of people there.
I met a good portion of the group watching my friends kids play soft ball at the soft ball fields.

I too found this interesting.
If this is as good as it seems maybe it could duplicated in multiple areas as a norm instead as a great idea that is not available to all.

I can see how the parent participation requirement could prevent it from catching on widely, if it means daytime participation in some form. Families where both parents need to work might not be able to do their part, whatever that might be. It's surprising that some families can afford to home-school, which takes one parent out of the work force. I don't know how some of them manage.

Montessori has a high teacher-to-student ratio, and gets amazing results.

[MechAndy]

I don’t really know how they do it.
I’m tempted to say it’s a rotating schedule but I’m not sure.

The wife and I were and still are workaholics but we always made a point to volunteer with the school or the sport teams.
Wifey did the school volunteer (lunch room/yard duty) thing and I did the sport league thing.
We each did about 8 hours a week at it (even more with travel added) and had to work into the night at times to make other deadlines.

I figure if we could figure that out others can too and if you add the ones that already do home school this could catch on.

That said,
Anything worth while for me has normally required extra effort.
Not everyone has that availability or wants to give the effort but some do .

[rkcarguy]

The tax increase cap going from 1-3% annually doesn't seem like much, but compounded annually its a 10% increase in 3 years. WA already has changed legislation tying property evaluations to market values which have doubled in just the last few years with annual re-assessments(used to be 3 years). Interestingly, they never go down after the market flops.
So, lets say you had an average home that was assessed at $400K a few years ago, (about $4,500 in taxes), that's $750K now, so now its $8,440 a year in taxes. In 3 more years you're at $9,280. That's almost $800 a month in property taxes!

[Transmition]

Originally Posted by rkcarguy

Interestingly, they never go down after the market flops.

Except that they do. People usually complain after it has dipped for a few years then starts rising again, they get so used to the lower figure that they forget that it used to be higher. Look up you own property taxes, you'll see a big dip from the recession from around 2009 to 2012 unless you had some huge local levies added in those years. People really freaked out when the recession ended and house prices started to rise, and they were still paying lower property taxes than five years before.

[rkcarguy]

The neighbors at my last place paid $439,000 for their house in 2006. By the time 2008 was in full effect it had been repo'd and sat empty for two years. Neighboring homes in the area were now selling for $200K, and the taxes never got adjusted back down from that $439K evaluation. Eventually it sold for $229K, but the taxes still stuck.
Mine evaluation did go down a whole $6,000 in 2016, but it's almost tripled since then.

[Pahn]

I wonder if high property taxes will stabilize housing prices. Look at Illinois, with their sky-high property taxes, and housing prices that are, to my eye, much more reasonable than WA.


Some places that have high property taxes and/or high property values will let people defer a certain portion of their property tax until they sell.

[Pomelo]

Originally Posted by Pahn

I wonder if high property taxes will stabilize housing prices. Look at Illinois, with their sky-high property taxes, and housing prices that are, to my eye, much more reasonable than WA.


Some places that have high property taxes and/or high property values will let people defer a certain portion of their property tax until they sell.

If the choice is high property tax rate/low house prices or low property tax rate/high house price, I would rather pay (and receive or have heirs receive) a higher purchase price for a house than higher property taxes. It makes no difference to affordability, since the monthly cost remains the same.

[rkcarguy]

Originally Posted by Pahn

I wonder if high property taxes will stabilize housing prices. Look at Illinois, with their sky-high property taxes, and housing prices that are, to my eye, much more reasonable than WA.

Some places that have high property taxes and/or high property values will let people defer a certain portion of their property tax until they sell.

I don't think so, Washington's red tape to new construction is at fault for most of the housing problems. Less than 2/3rds of the states recent 1-million in population growth was accommodated by newly permitted bedrooms during the same time period. I don't expect property taxes will balance anything. If anything, its just going to accelerate the exodus of the working class and forcing of the retired/fixed income people from their homes.
Now, one serious potential is that we go the way of Detroit. It's sure starting to look like it, Bellingham's crime rating (in the worst 4%) was only 1 point behind Detroit(3) and Seattle(2) is worse.