Property Tax For Dummies: Part 2

Part two is hard to get started. Have you heard the news? The Governor of Kansas and candidate for Director of Health and Human Services is a tax cheat. (just go to any major news website and learn more about Governor Sebelius the tax cheat) We will get back to that later. The problem with property is there are far fewer home owners than renters. It is a simple process for the government to raise money via property tax. They simply raise the mill levy and or raise the value of your property on a annual basis; 112% in 10 years! Think about it, we are ready to lynch bankers for these types of profits. The tragic part, now many people who use to be able to afford purchasing a house cannot. The government for the most part doesn't have to go to the tax payer to ask for permission to raise property tax. Like all government they never give back what they take. As they raise property taxes they increase government spending. When the legislature or politician proposes cutting property taxes those in government who advocate spending your property tax, scream that your are cutting spending for the most needy. So here we are today in this bad economy where house prices are falling back to the levels than in many cases are more in line with their actual value. But the government is still sending out their appraisers with instructions to keep those values artificially inflated to keep those property taxes rolling in. They have increased government spending to the point that they know if values fall and taxes follow they will have to make extremely difficult decisions about cutting spending for those they have already made promises. They are not going to increase sales taxes. After all that hurts the poor and needy. So really to take care of the poor and needy, the schools, the fire departments, the police, the water treatment plants and on and on, it is the home owners paying the bill. Remember there are far more renters. Those who own property are footing this government spending. Yet it is the renters and those who don't own property who use most of these services. In closing, I have a friend who lives in a neighboring county here in Kansas. The taxes on his home doubled this past year. They went from $2,500.00 to nearly $5,000.00 in one year for goodness sake. That wasn't the mean old bank or a bad mortgage. That increase was simply due to an artificial increase in the mill levy and an annual appraisal of his property. That is a $208.00 monthly increase in his house payment. So much for the new car, braces for the kid or an increase to his 403B. Don't be a property tax dummy, go to propositionk.org and learn about a better property tax system for Kansas.

Where Property Tax Dollars are Typically Spent
2009 Budget