Replies

As to apartments, simply charge sales tax on rent. The only one not paying is the resixent owner who is not renting.

I have no desire to soak the rich with their big houses. Socialism simply impoverished both the middle class and the nation.

There are middle class people around here on the hook for $25k/year property taxes on $600k homes in good areas.

Property taxes for non-commercial dwellings imply that the owner of the property does not really own it. They are quasi-commie in that regard. There is no reason not to simply cover services like fire and sewage using sales taxes and even a poll tax.

Hell, property taxes on commercial dwellings imply that the owner doesn't really own it. And yes, sewage, water, garbage, all of that is easily covered by usage fees: Rowlett sends me a ~$100 bill every month for all of that. But services like fire or police can't be usage-based, as the break-even cost would be too much for the few people who do use them. But a sales tax can't really cover it - people spend money outside the city, and why would outsiders be responsible for covering those services? And more importantly, how does a primarily residential city recover any sales taxes, whereas a primarily commercial/industrial city will have an overflow of $$. City-level services mostly need to be fed from the city, and excusing the people that live there isn't viable for most places.

As to apartments, simply charge sales tax on rent. The only one not paying is the resixent owner who is not renting.

Sure, but as a commercial venture, would any apartment landlord be immune to commercial property taxes? What if there's a laundromat or restaurant in the complex? How do you start splitting the percentages of the property into business that is property taxed, vs residences that are sales taxed? How do you split parking/outdoor seating/other amenities?

I have no desire to soak the rich with their big houses. Socialism simply impoverished both the middle class and the nation.

You aren't soaking the rich when you have a flat rate: it's fair for everyone at all levels. Why should someone with a massive house and ten acres pay the same flat amount as each of a hundred people with tenth-acre lots? That's a lot of area that isn't getting equally taxed if the city isn't charging more for a bigger property.

There are middle class people around here on the hook for $25k/year property taxes on $600k homes in good areas.

And it sounds like 'around here' is a rather high-tax area. IU hope you're getting quite a lot of services out of the city at that price! Around here, a $250M house gives you about $5500 in taxes. Most of that school district, which is a whole 'nother issue we could have a couple conversations about.