Free Republic

BISMARCK – Recently, the Burleigh County Commission discussed the proposed updates to the Burleigh County Comprehensive Plan. Commission Chairman Jerry Woodcox was quoted in the Bismarck Tribune, saying "Any kind of a plan, if it's a good plan and a progressive plan is going to take some property rights, but that's part of our job - to channel evolvement, to get a good development, to have it proper and do it right.” Taking people’s property rights requires a couple of big assumptions. First, the denial that people have a right to use their personal property as they see fit so...

On June 30, the board of education and the town council in Enfield, Conn., convened to hear the results of a citizen cost-cutting committee. Among its other recommendations, the 17 residents recommended replacing some public school teachers with low-cost college interns, restricting the use of school vehicles, and increasing employee contributions to benefit plans. These may seem modest steps toward fiscal responsibility -- but they are emblematic of a significant change in this very blue state: growing disenchantment with the price of government, especially of public education. [Cross Country] Corbis Over the past two and a half decades, the student...

Property assessments questioned By Tabatha Hunter Staff Writer // tabathah@nwanews.com Posted on Saturday, July 26, 2008 URL: http://www.nwanews.com/bcdr/News/64125/ BENTONVILLE — Benton County Assessor Bill Moutray met with local legislators Friday morning to discuss the property assessments his office recently sent out to Benton County property owners. Many of the assessments showed dramatic increases in value despite a sluggish economy, increasing foreclosures and $ 4-a-gallon gasoline. “ I believe personally that these assessments are wrong, and I want to know what we can do to fix it, ” said state Sen. Kim Hendren, R-Gravette. “ It is not right, and it...

The San Mateo County Board of Supervisors has scheduled a closed-door session to tackle a $20 million debt that came to light earlier this week. The board added the issue to its Tuesday agenda after learning the county must reimburse South San Francisco biotech firm Genentech for a portion of its property taxes dating to 1994. The $20 million judgment by the San Mateo County Superior Court was punishment for a scheduling error in the county's assessment appeals process. The closed session is the first step as the county scrambles for ways to cushion the blow, which threatens to cut...

With two-thirds of Oregon county governments, including Lane County, facing financial crises, Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski on Monday urged residents to accept modest local property tax increases and more logging on federal forests to help stave off deep cuts in county law enforcement and other critical services. Those steps are just two of 54 recommendations in a task force report delivered to the governor on Monday. Kulongoski commissioned the report last year to address the imminent loss of about $238 million in annual federal timber payments, including $47 million a year to Lane County. The top recommendation was for Oregon...

In Colorado, taxpayers have a tremendous amount of control over their own property taxes. Thanks to the state’s Taxpayers Bill of Rights (TABOR), which stunts the growth of property taxes, those of us who own property in Eagle County shouldn’t expect to see our taxes skyrocket at the same rate as our property values without voter approval. This year, however, taxpayers’ rights were usurped by Gov. Bill Ritter’s decision to freeze the statewide school district property tax rate... Not only was Ritter’s move a clear violation of the TABOR Amendment because it effectively raised taxes without voter approval, it didn’t...

Edith Macefield died at home, just the way she wanted. The Ballard woman who captured hearts and admirers around the world when she stubbornly turned down $1 million to sell her home to make way for a commercial development died Sunday of pancreatic cancer. She was 86. "I don't want to move. I don't need the money. Money doesn't mean anything," she told the Seattle P-I in October. She continued living in the little old house in the 1400 block of Northwest 46th Street even after concrete walls rose around her, coming within a few feet of her kitchen window....

A Denver District Court judge ruled today that Gov. Bill Ritter's controversial mill-levy freeze is unconstitutional. "However well-intentioned and commendable the purpose and consequences ... this Court must be concerned only with enforcement of the Colorado Constitution," District Court Court Judge Christina Habas ... A group of taxpayers, organized by the conservative Independence Institute, filed suit late last year against the Colorado Department of Education, arguing that the property-tax freeze amounts to an unconstitutional tax increase because voters did not directly approve it. "All that's required to raise taxes in this state is to ask first. Only the most arrogant...

A labor-union campaign in Colorado to tighten restrictions on layoffs and ... could put Democrats in an awkward position as they gather here in August for their presidential convention. Unions are pushing to get a total of six measures on the fall ballot, all of them opposed by small-business owners and corporate interests. "If they pass, it would be like putting a big 'Do Not Locate Your Business Here' sign on Colorado," ... Big labor groups said they will pump as much as $35 million into Colorado to pass their own measures and defeat a rival initiative promoted by business...

Arizona has been hit hard hit by the real-estate bust, with the average home value down 17% in a year and a record number of foreclosures. So Democratic Governor Janet Napolitano has devised a clever way to revive the housing market: Raise property taxes. Last week Ms. Napolitano vetoed a bill that would have made a two-year suspension of the state property tax permanent. "It's untimely. It's untenable. It's unwise," she said of her untimely and unwise veto. So as housing values slide, Arizonans next year will get walloped with an extra $250 million property tax bill. Arizona is one...

As the state's population continues to grow in its urban centers, expansion plans for the highway system continue to be the focus for transportation improvements. The Trans Texas Corridor proposal is aimed to alleviate traffic congestion, improve air quality and provide safer traveling for drivers, among other goals. In 2002, Texas Governor Rick Perry released the plan to create the passageway, which spans northeast from Laredo to Oklahoma and is set to total 4,000 miles in the next 50 years. The $140 billion project calls for the incorporation of new toll roads, commuter railways, power lines and gas pipelines, while...

Topic: Globalism The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) is planning on building a new super highway system called the Trans-Texas Corridor (TTC). The Trans-Texas Corridor will not be just another interstate and will it will be used by more than just automobiles. It will include 10 lanes for traffic, two high speed rail tracks, four standard rail tracks, utility lines, oil pipelines, and gas pipelines. The Trans-Texas Corridor will consist of many corridors segments that are 1,200 feet wide, with each mile consuming 146 acres of land. This land is currently ranch and farm land that is being taken by...

A three-judge panel of the California Court of Appeal has determined parents in that state have no legal right to home school. A Christian attorney in Sacramento says unless the ruling is reversed, literally thousands of students in the Golden State will be subject to criminal sanctions. (click here for special webcast starting at 2 p.m. CST) California Justice H. Walter Croskey has stated in an opinion that "parents who fail to [comply with school enrollment laws] may be subject to a criminal complaint against them, found guilty of an infraction, and subject to imposition of fines or an order...

“We could've talked for another hour. People were really getting into it,� said Reuben Grassl, who organized a Feb. 14 community meeting in Shiro to discuss the proposed I-69 corridor route through Grimes County. The meeting was led by Grassl, Charles Wendt, and Edna Keasling and was attended by a cross section of 65 people from as far as Madisonville and Iola, who showed up with both questions and suggestions for opposition plans. “We gave them the latest information we received from the four recent meetings in the area, because a lot of information TxDoT and TTC put out would...

ALBANY — Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s plan to contain the rising property taxes that support New York’s schools could mean a confrontation with the state’s largest teachers’ union, whose president said on Thursday he was wary of a new commission leading the effort. ... Mr. Spitzer raised eyebrows in his speech when he said the new commission would be vested with powers from the Moreland Act, a century-old law giving commissions subpoena power in investigations of government entities. It will allow the commission to dig into a variety of information related to school district spending, including the costs of energy, administration...

Falling home values and rising property taxes in many parts of the country are generating the loudest complaints about property levies since the 1970s, forcing state and local officials to address the outcry even as the housing-market slump eats into many sources of their revenue. Indiana residents held public protests this summer against a surge in property taxes and acted on their frustration by ousting the mayor of Indianapolis. Florida voters will decide next month whether to adopt massive property-tax cuts... In California, thousands of homeowners are having their assessments reduced under a decades-old state law, and lower tax revenue...

Montana still relies more heavily than do other states on property taxes for revenue, but the actual tax levels are not abnormally high... Doug Young, professor of economics at MSU-Bozeman, also told a meeting of Montana business and political officials that residential and commercial real estate is shouldering a greater share of the property tax burden in the state. Young spoke in Helena at the annual meeting of the Montana Taxpayers Association, a group that primarily represents business taxpayers. Property taxes account for 37 percent of tax revenue in Montana, while the national average for states is 31 percent... Income,...

A prominent Republican lawmaker is crying foul over $66 million of tax savings homeowners would have seen if not for a law passed by the legislature and signed by Gov. Bill Ritter this year. Ritter signed into law Senate Bill 07-199, freezing property tax rates indefinitely at current rates. The measure eliminates tax cuts that otherwise would have taken place under a 1994 school-finance law - an estimated $48 million for fiscal year 2007-2008. "It's the fact that we had said - from day one - it's a bottomless pit and that it will be working families and seniors that...

New York and New Jersey residents paid the highest property taxes in the United States in 2006 - as much as $6,500 more than the national median, according to a report released yesterday. Hunterdon County, N.J., won the dubious distinction of imposing the country's highest property taxes on its residents, displacing Westchester, which is now third, the Tax Foundation, a nonpartisan research group, said. Median real-estate taxes for Hunterdon totaled $7,999, followed by the $7,706 bill paid by homeowners in Nassau, which placed second. Westchester residents paid $7,626, according to the report. The rest of the Top 10 property-taxed counties...

Levies increase despite decline in home values. Residential property taxes rose an average of $161 in cities and towns across the state in the past fiscal year, as home assessments hit historic highs despite declining market values. The average property tax bill for a single-family home hit $3,962, up 4.2 percent from the previous year. Taxes climbed 7 percent or higher in more than 65 communities, according to data from the state Department of Revenue. Since 2000, property taxes have shot up nearly 50 percent, from $2,679, far outpacing gains in wages, which climbed 30 percent statewide over the same...

As a direct result of a booming economy and rising real-estate values, property owners in Mesa County will see a reduction in their county mill levy next year. They will pay $3 million less in county property taxes in 2008 than they would have paid without the mill-levy cut. But, as a direct result of legislation promoted by Gov. Bill Ritter and approved almost exclusively by Democrats in the Legislature, the total property tax bill paid in Mesa County next year is estimated to grow by $4.1 million. The Mesa County Commissioners — Republicans all — were quick to point...

HONOLULU, HI; August 7, 2007: A voter-enacted measure that would have reined in skyrocketing property taxes on the island of Kauai was struck down by the Hawaii Supreme Court yesterday. The court permitted local government officials to challenge the “Ohana Kauai” tax-limitation measure by essentially suing themselves – in a lawsuit in which the government was both plaintiff and defendant and the same attorneys represent both sides. The court also ruled that the state constitution does not permit anyone but government officials to establish tax policy. “We’re disappointed that the court allowed this fabricated lawsuit to go forward,” said Pacific...

TRENTON, N.J. -- Gov. Jon S. Corzine dubbed the state's new property tax relief program a step toward easing the burden of America's highest property taxes, but applying to get that help is proving a burden to beleaguered Garden State homeowners. "I found it a bit difficult and time consuming,'' said Alice Tulecki of Brick, who is among those who struggled to complete the recently mailed property tax relief application sent by the state to homeowners. Under the new program approved by Corzine and pushed by legislative Democrats, most homeowners will get a check this fall equal to 20 percent...

INDIANAPOLIS -- Fear and anger are prevalent in Marion County over skyrocketing property taxes that are causing a flood of calls from homeowners. Calls are pouring into government offices from property owners who are unhappy about their new property tax bills and unsure how they are going to afford them. Bills started going into the mail on Friday morning, but some property owners who called in to get the bad news early got even worse news than they had anticipated, 6News' Norman Cox reported. Lawrence Township, which is seeing some of the county's largest increases, has many residents concerned if...

HAUPPAUGE, N.Y. — A recent day in May began in crisis mode for Steve Levy, the Suffolk County executive, over an allegation that a police crackdown on unlicensed drivers amounted to the ethnic profiling of illegal immigrants.Soon, he was preparing a response to accusations by 30 state legislators, fellow Democrats all, that his policies in this Long Island county of 1.4 million “instigate divisiveness, hatred and intolerant behavior toward immigrants.” By 2 p.m., Mr. Levy seemed relieved to turn from “the whole illegal immigration thing,” as he calls it, to a topic confined to his 631 area code: a health...

A bill that changes the information in School Accountability Reports, which Gov. Bill Ritter signed last week after it landed on his desk, was new to Ritter but familiar to the desk. Democrats, taking advantage of having one of their own in the governor’s office for the first time in eight years, repassed 33 bills this year that once were vetoed by former Republican Gov. Bill Owens. Ritter, the first-year Democratic governor, has signed 16 so far, including the aforementioned House Bill 1345. Some are exact replicas of deceased forebears, while others have been changed. But the fact they are...

After coasting to reelection, Governor Sonny Perdue is turning his back on fiscal conservatives. The Georgia legislature proposed a budget that includes a $142 million property tax refund. Governor Perdue vetoed the budget this week, but refused to send it back to the legislature out of fear of being overridden. Instead Governor Perdue rescinded his veto, and used a line-item veto to strike the property tax refund from the budget. FreedomWorks believes that government should cut spending first before eliminating any tax cuts. FreedomWorks alerted its 13,000 members in Georgia through an email action alert to call and email Governor...

Veteran GOP Sen. Ken Kester denounced an unsuccessful advertising campaign against him by the Colorado Education Association, charging it "twists and turns" his opposition to a pending statewide property tax hike. A spokeswoman for the teachers union, meanwhile, confirmed that the Colorado Campaign for Children and Public Schools, named at the bottom of the newspaper ad as its sponsor, is the CEA's "527" political-spending arm. Records with the Secretary of State's Office show prominent Democrat lawyer Mark Grueskin filed the group's paperwork. The property-tax hike -- on its way to the governor for his likely signature -- would freeze the...

In the face of a Republican outcry, Senate Democrats approved a fast-tracked property-tax hike today on most homes and businesses in Colorado, and they refused to put the issue to a statewide vote. It passed as part of the annual School Finance Act on a 19-15 vote, with all Republicans voting in opposition. The tax hike -- which was pushed by Gov. Bill Ritter and will cost the public $1.7 billion over the next 10 years -- has been the focus of intense debate for weeks and has dominated hallway discussions at the Capitol. Republicans have assailed it not only...

(CBS4) TALLAHASSEE -- Lawmakers in the state house of representatives are ready to stop charging many Floridians property taxes -- by making the state's sales tax the highest in the nation. House Republican leaders just unveiled a package of proposals to halt runaway government spending and to eliminate homeowners' property-tax bills by raising the six-cent state sales tax by 2.2 cents. Under the plans, homeowners would no longer pay any property taxes whatsoever. Owners of commercial properties and nonhomesteaded homes would continue paying all local-government property taxes, which would be adjusted for inflation after being scaled back to 2001 levels...

Fred Rump has had it. Burdened with an ever-increasing property-tax bill, now more than $13,000, he has left Burlington County for the sunshine in Naples, Fla. He hoped to leave his home in Beverly to his son, but the son couldn't afford New Jersey and left for North Carolina. "I just don't like it that we have to give up our family home simply because politicians can't act with simple logic," said Rump, 70. "They are supposed to represent the very homeowners they are dispossessing." U.S. census data show that 72,000 New Jerseyans moved to other states last year. While...

Baltimore City homeowners saw some of the region's steepest increases in the recent round of property reassessments, a stark change after years of lagging home values - and added ammunition for groups calling for tax relief. In the city, which has the highest property tax rate in the state, nearly one in five reassessed homes saw values at least double since they were last evaluated three years ago. No other jurisdiction in the Baltimore region had such a high share, according to a Sun analysis of state records for owner-occupied homes. The city also claims the ZIP codes with the...

"Imprimis" is Hillsdale College's monthly publication that has over 1.25 million readers. It's Hillsdale's way of sharing the ideas of the many distinguished speakers invited to their campus. And, I might add, Hillsdale College is one of the few colleges where students get a true liberal arts education, absent the nonsense seen on many campuses. The January edition of "Imprimis" contains an important speech by former New Jersey Superior Court Judge Andrew P. Napolitano titled "Property Rights After the Kelo Decision." For those who haven't kept up, the Kelo decision is the 2005 U.S. Supreme Court 5-4 decision that upheld...

LENOIR NC - State and local governments could hand Google more than $100 million in tax breaks over the next 30 years. In exchange, the company that runs the world's largest search engine would build a hub in this foothills community for its massive international computer network and hire 210 people. The prospect has the area abuzz, even though many residents know little about the technology titan and are unsure who would work for it. "People are expectant but hesitant," said Dinell Clark, who, with her family, recently opened a home furnishings store in downtown Lenoir. "What do we get...

The once financially troubled Coatesville school district ended the 2005-06 school year with a $26 million surplus the district's independent auditing firm reported at Tuesday night's finance committee meeting. This is the second consecutive year the district has ended the year with a surplus. Board Member Rick Ritter, chairman of the finance committee, said the $26 million surplus was built on the previous year's, 2004-05, surplus of $13 million. "This is a most pleasurable experience," said Pam Baker, of the auditing firm Barbacane Thornton Inc. In the past, she said, "I had to stand here and present very unpleasant issues."...

Take a deep breath. Now exhale. Does that make you feel like you deserve a raise? If so, you understand the concept of the so-called "breathing bonus." And you also understand one of the main reasons New Jersey has the most expensive public school system of any state. One of the few useful results to come out of those legislative committees on property tax reform was an admission of just how costly it is to put a kid through New Jersey's public schools: $16,000 a year. That figure was included in the report of the Joint Legislative Committee on Public...

Low crime, reasonable commute, and good schools—who says you can't find a nice house in a suburb without paying a fortune? Buying your first house? Fleeing the city for a life within your means? Here's a novel idea: Move to a suburb where you won't break the bank or get your car broken into. A community with reasonable home prices and decent schools. A suburb close to your city job, with a lively downtown of its own. For hedge-fund managers, plastic surgeons, corporate lawyers, and other people who earn millions a year, choosing a suburb is not about affordability but...

For years, Trenton lawmakers knew property taxes were suffocating homeowners. They watched school boards and municipal councils approve spending that piled one 6.5 percent property tax increase on top of another, year after year. They bemoaned the highest-in-the-nation tax bills. But they never did anything. For them, decrying confiscatory taxes was a safer political choice than actually doing something. They realized that lowering property taxes, seemingly a good thing, would trig ger consequences -- most of them unappealing. Simply put, reducing reli ance on property taxes as the major funding source for schools and local government can be achieved only...

Topsail Island | Gordon Bradley is trapped between a nearly 400 percent jump in his property taxes and a sluggish real estate market. "We're on a fixed income, and it would take an awful big bite out of our resources to pay the taxes," said Bradley, an 80-year-old retired Jacksonville police officer who has owned the beach home since 1976. Bradley's bill has shot up because of the Onslow County tax revaluation. Now, he's trying to sell the house. But after nearly six months, it's still on the market, with no one interested in it. "It's like a balloon has...

A word of warning for Texans expecting a drop in property taxes this year: Don't get your hopes up until you do the math. Yes, there have been recent cuts in property tax rates -- half a penny here, a tenth of a cent there, even 14 cents for some -- and state lawmakers earlier this year approved a measure geared to shift some of the school property tax burden to businesses and smokers. But rising property values across the state, including a 9 percent growth in Tarrant County partly due to new construction, may well eat up much of...

More than 80 Mexico Beach homeowners met with Rick Barnett Friday morning. They all had one thing in common.Their assessed home values have skyrocketed and their property tax is through the roof, and the tone seemed to be the same throughout the room.One woman said her mobile home and small piece of property she purchased for $25,000 several years ago was appraised this year for $200,000.Another man says his home went up in assessed value by 400 percent. His property taxes jumped from $2,000 last year to $10,000 this year.The owner of Mexico Beachs Driftwood Inn says the increased property...

Business lobbyists are set to square off against state lawmakers who are considering reducing residential property taxes and recoping some of the revenue by raising property tax rates for business. The idea, which would require an amendment to the state constitution, is to be discussed next week at a Sept. 7 legislative committee meeting. It was initially touched on at a committee meeting earlier this month. Business advocates are outraged that the topic is being discussed at all. “From our perspective, that is not reform,” says Jim Leonard, vice president of government relations for the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce....

A report found that more Phila. schools met progress targets under No Child Left Behind. Mirroring statewide results, more public schools in Philadelphia met progress targets this year under the federal No Child Left Behind law - thanks to a strong performance by the city's charter schools. The improvement in Philadelphia bucks a recently released nationwide report that found charter schools lagged behind regular public schools in 2003 reading and math scores. But as well as the charter schools did, the performance of city schools operated by the for-profit Edison Schools Inc. and Victory Schools Inc. fell - and that...

From our intrepid correspondent on site down in Texas, Crawford Activist, we have this photo of Cindy Sheehan registering to vote in the local post office last Tuesday: Crawford Activist reports that Mother Sheehan then left Crawford late Tuesday afternoon to attend a conference in Seattle she is headlining. Ms. Sheehan is supposed to return to Crawford Friday morning in time to protest the RNC fundraiser near the President's ranch. Then Cindy is off again to give a speech in Washington, DC on Saturday. It seems she just can't resist those speaking fees.But hasn't our hero mother broken Texas law...

MONTGOMERY, N.J. (AP) -- Barbara Lehman has lived in this central New Jersey community for 30 years, but her time here is nearing an end. She sent her children through Montgomery's well-regarded schools. And she enjoys the rolling landscape even as housing developments have spread across it in recent years. But her property taxes have climbed 56 percent since 2000 to a knee-buckling $14,000 a year - a heavy load for a high school French teacher whose salary goes up only about 3 percent a year. "Oh, it's terrible," Lehman said.

n recent weeks I’ve written about how inflation is alive and well, especially when it comes to the cost of housing, energy, gas, and education. But perhaps the most worrisome type of inflation comes in the form of steadily rising property taxes. Property taxes keep going up for most Texans, and people living on fixed incomes are especially concerned. They often find their homes being reassessed every year at values far beyond what they originally paid. So an annual property tax bill that once was a manageable $500 or $700 might now be $1500 or $2000. Of course Texas tax...

We're grateful to our police officers. We count on them. We're proud of them.  Our state is going broke paying for them.  Same goes for teachers. We wish we could afford them, but we're having trouble.  We're having trouble paying for New Jersey's nearly 500,000 public employees. Especially at their current salaries and fringe benefits. Especially with New Jersey's property taxes among the steepest in the nation and rising.  Especially now that state officials have closed a $4.5 billion budget gap by raising taxes and cutting services while sidestepping the subject of how we compensate unionized public workers.  This isn't...

Appraisals draw ire of residents BY JAMES GALLAGHER AVALANCHE-JOURNAL The value of Ken Cowling's home jumped more than 34 percent this year, and he is starting to wonder if it will ever stop going up. The home is now valued at more than $241,000, compared to about $180,000 last year. It's value has increased each year since 2003. Cowling said he'd sell his house, "if I could find someone who would pay for it." Several of Cowling's other properties also saw similar appraisal increases, including some duplexes. Cowling said he can't understand the increase since the duplex market in Lubbock...

Lawmakers approved a plan to extend eligibility for property tax rebates. It is expected to be passed into law soon. HARRISBURG - A legislative committee approved a landmark plan yesterday that would expand by more than 400,000 the number of senior citizens who qualify for property-tax rebate checks and require most voters to decide whether to trade higher local income taxes for lower levies on their houses. And, when money from slot machines starts flowing to the state in 2008, other homeowners would see smaller property tax bills, too.

"A Prairie Home Companion" creator Garrison Keillor has inserted himself into the debate over whether DeLaSalle High School should build a football field on Nicollet Island. Keillor is scheduled to headline a star-filled fundraiser May 21 for opponents of the planned football field. For their part, DeLaSalle supporters are now sending Keillor e-mails and pondering whether to picket the debut of the movie based on his radio show. Keillor, who lives in St. Paul, became involved at the behest of singer Prudence Johnson, who lives on the island in Minneapolis and said she asked for his help, but now expresses...