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This article is not about taxes that are too high . . . it is about taxes that are too high for certain people. See Post #43. There is a hidden agenda at work here, and it is part of an ongoing process under which more and more people (in this case, an elderly person living on a fixed income) will end up being supported at the expense of a shrinking number of taxpayers.

You have to understand something about property taxes in New York State. First, County governments are responsible for funding 25% of the Medicaid bill the state sets. In some counties 100% of the property tax levy goes to pay this 25%. We are not that bad in my county, but that is only because our County Executive has been a good steward. I pay $10,500 a year on a $330,000 home. $6500 of that is for schools.

Second, assessment is a scam. It has no meaning. A house is worth only what someone will pay for it on the open market. For purposes of refi I have my home assessed at the highest possible figure. For the purposes of tax levy I have it assessed at the lowest. If assessment was a real thing those two numbers would be the same, but they are not.

IMHO property taxes violate the 5th and 14th amendments to the Constitution and should be outlawed.

This article is not about taxes that are too high . . . it is about taxes that are too high for certain people. See Post #43. There is a hidden agenda at work here, and it is part of an ongoing process under which more and more people (in this case, an elderly person living on a fixed income) will end up being supported at the expense of a shrinking number of taxpayers.

Whoa, you are one cold piece of work, dude!

It's not like grannie moved in from way up in the hills, and decided to plunk herself down in your nice upscale suburban utopia, and then sits there were her hand out and a "feed me, sucka" sign hanging around her neck.

This country is gone to hell in a bucket. When a "culture" reaches the stage at which it treats its elderly as disposable "non-producing assets", who, when they can no longer pull the plow, will be sent to the glue factory rather than put out to pasture... when a society reaches that stage, it's at pretty much a terminal stage.

Things do get worse -- at an exponential rate.