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Liberal Austin homeowners surprised to find they have to pay all the taxes they voted for
Hotair ^ | 06/02/2014 | Erika Johnsen

Posted on 06/02/2014 7:18:13 PM PDT by SeekAndFind

NIMBY, literally.

“I’m at the breaking point,” said Gretchen Gardner, an Austin artist who bought a 1930s bungalow in the Bouldin neighborhood just south of downtown in 1991 and has watched her property tax bill soar to $8,500 this year.

“It’s not because I don’t like paying taxes,” said Gardner, who attended both meetings. “I have voted for every park, every library, all the school improvements, for light rail, for anything that will make this city better. But now I can’t afford to live here anymore. I’ll protest my appraisal notice, but that’s not enough. Someone needs to step in and address the big picture.”

I’m really just bringing this to your attention for this quote alone. Voting and paying are different endeavors entirely. Often, when one has to pay for the things one has voted to fund, that decision becomes less flippant. This is a comment, less on the specifics of Texas’ or Austin’s tax system than the blaring disconnect between liberals in Austin who are voting for higher taxes and the actual paying of the taxes. Which, as it turns out, is painful, discouraging, and can be a detriment to the fabric of the city.

The Texas Public Policy Foundation offers this on the complexity and salience of Texas property taxes:

In Texas, there are more than 3,900 localities that impose property taxes, including school districts, counties, and special districts. Texas’ property tax burden has grown from approximately 1 percent of value in the early 1980s to nearly 3 percent today.

The rising burden from property tax is worse for the housing-rich but income-poor elderly homeowners. For example, elderly homeowners tend to move more often to reduce their property tax burden, which is an additional cost of owning a home for those who can least afford to move.

Interestingly, another reason voters hate property taxes is because they are more “salient.” A salient tax means that the burden is transparent, easy to understand, and hard to avoid. If paid directly, property taxes are found to be more salient compared with sales taxes applied at checkout or income taxes withheld from a paycheck.

In 2012, the free-market think tank suggested swapping the local property tax for a sales tax:

New research suggests that if Texas eliminates its local property tax system, ranked as the 14th most oppressive in the nation, and instead replaces those lost revenues with an adjusted sales tax, then the ensuing flood of capital investment and business activity could ignite the Texas economy for years to come.

That’s right, just by changing how Texas governments collect public dollars—but not how much they spend—the Legislature can give the economy and people’s wallets a major boost.

By how much, you ask? Our estimates suggest quite a bit.

Either way, I don’t think Gretchen Gardner is ever going to make the connection between her voting pattern and her bill.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events; US: Texas
KEYWORDS: austin; bluezones; propertytaxes; taxandspend; taxes; texas
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To: Regulator
"the property tax should be abolished.."

It's a partial wealth tax.

21 posted on 06/02/2014 7:39:59 PM PDT by Paladin2
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To: SeekAndFind

They all say that...”It’s not that I don’t want to pay taxes...”

Uh huh


22 posted on 06/02/2014 7:40:00 PM PDT by ChocChipCookie ("Demons run when a good man goes to war.")
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To: SeekAndFind

Liberals. Too stupid to be idiots.


23 posted on 06/02/2014 7:40:18 PM PDT by jmacusa
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To: SeekAndFind
when one has to pay for the things one has voted to fund, that decision becomes less flippant.

There it is, short & sweet.

As that California lib put it: "Of course I want the poor to have healthcare, but I didn't think I would have to pay for it!"

24 posted on 06/02/2014 7:41:24 PM PDT by workerbee (The President of the United States is DOMESTIC ENEMY #1!)
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To: SeekAndFind
If they put in a sales tax wouldn't it really just result in subsidizing liberals pet projects? Why would the entire state want to support the whack job Austin culture?

Let them pay for their own stupidity.

25 posted on 06/02/2014 7:50:12 PM PDT by Durus (You can avoid reality, but you cannot avoid the consequences of avoiding reality. Ayn Rand)
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To: workerbee

And there are the dumbass renters who vote for every park, yada yada.

And are stunned that their landlord raises rents because his property taxes increased.


26 posted on 06/02/2014 7:52:17 PM PDT by angry elephant (Endangered species in Seattle)
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To: Blood of Tyrants
Liberals always think that “other people” will have to pay for the things they vote for. It is always a surprise to them when reality slaps them up side the head.

I doubt they ever become aware of actual "reality." I'm sure the "big picture" she has in mind involves having "the rich" pay for the stuff she votes for. These people believe in Utopia and the Tooth Fairy.

27 posted on 06/02/2014 7:52:38 PM PDT by Bernard Marx
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To: Regulator
Texas has no state income tax so the municipalities gotta make it up somehow.

100% right. And private property owners in Austin are really behind the 8-ball from the outset because so much of what passes for a tax base in Austin is off the tax rolls because it's state or city property. That means an even greater burden falls upon the ordinary property taxpayer in Travis County.

You'd think that an informed voter in Austin who works for a living would have reckoned with that reality long ago, but in the case of this Gretchen Goober person, I guess not.
28 posted on 06/02/2014 7:57:29 PM PDT by Milton Miteybad (I am Jim Thompson. {Really.})
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To: SeekAndFind

Free-market suggested swapping local property taxes for sales tax?
Are you kidding me? Just another way of taking money from folks to feed leviathan. How about reducing the size and scope of government so taxes would be less oppressive.


29 posted on 06/02/2014 7:57:44 PM PDT by all the best (sat`~!)
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To: SeekAndFind; All
OH! the shock! ..It's others' peoples taxes, when YOU vote for it;
but when YOU have to pay it with our own $$$$, it's a different story.

30 posted on 06/02/2014 7:58:36 PM PDT by skinkinthegrass (The end move in politics is always to pick up a gun..0'Bathhouse/"Rustler" Reid? d8-)
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To: SeekAndFind
Someone needs to step in and address the big picture.”<<

Hey Gretchen..You tried with your votes, but now.... Its time for YOU to address the “big picture” u created...put the barrel in your mouth and pull the damned trigger...You'll feel much better about yourself and your votes shortly after...

31 posted on 06/02/2014 7:58:48 PM PDT by M-cubed
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To: SeekAndFind

So many are so uninformed that they do not know there is a connection between property taxes and monthly house payments.


32 posted on 06/02/2014 7:59:11 PM PDT by Theodore R. (Liberals keep winning; so the American people must now be all-liberal all the time.)
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To: jmacusa
Liberals. Too stupid to be idiots.

LOL, they give idiots a bad name.

33 posted on 06/02/2014 7:59:57 PM PDT by Mark17 (Chicago Blackhawks: Stanley Cup champions 2010, 2013. Vietnam Vet 70-71 Msgt US Air Force, retired)
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To: FlingWingFlyer

Liberals aren’t the sharpest knives in the drawer, but they are, to paraphrase Al Haig “in charge here!”


34 posted on 06/02/2014 8:02:13 PM PDT by Theodore R. (Liberals keep winning; so the American people must now be all-liberal all the time.)
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To: SeekAndFind

“But I just voted for a bunch of government spending. Someone else I supposed to pay the taxes.”


35 posted on 06/02/2014 8:12:58 PM PDT by Bubba_Leroy (The Obamanation Continues)
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To: SeekAndFind
In Fredricksburg last year I was in a conversation with an Ex-Austinite (sp?) and proud Obama supporter. She said she moved from Austin because it was “too liberal, even for me.”
36 posted on 06/02/2014 8:14:42 PM PDT by Michael.SF. (I never thought anyone could make Jimmy Carter look good in comparisons)
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To: clintonh8r
Right here!

 photo violin-1.jpg

I suggest we have a "stupidity tax." Then Gretchen could enjoy 100% tax rates.

37 posted on 06/02/2014 8:22:53 PM PDT by Clay Moore (I Like My Guns Like Obama Likes His Voters: Undocumented)
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To: SeekAndFind

Gretchen: Drop dead. You voted for it. You own/owe it.

Good luck in your new Obama-approved paper box house.

Dumb ahole. What did you expect, lower taxes?

Some people are pepertually stuck on stupid.


38 posted on 06/02/2014 8:27:52 PM PDT by MadMax, the Grinning Reaper
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To: SeekAndFind
Every few years, liberals try to get Texas to adopt an income tax. Strangly, they find many takers on this truely stupid idea. Fortunately, we've been able to beat them back time after time.

High taxes are supposed to be painful you stupid schmucks.

39 posted on 06/02/2014 8:28:34 PM PDT by zeugma (I have never seen anyone cross the street to avoid a black man in a suit.)
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To: uncitizen
“It’s not because I don’t like paying taxes,” said Gardner, who attended both meetings. “I have voted for the government to spend, spend, spend, spend every park, every library, all the school improvements, for light rail, for anything that will make this city better. But now I don't want to pay for it and I can’t afford to live here anymore.

I second your Bwhahahahaha.

Libs would be cute if they weren't so dangerously dumb.

40 posted on 06/02/2014 8:32:31 PM PDT by A message
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