Free Republic

Voters in the city of Chicago are being presented with a referendum on their ballots in the 2024 primary election, asking if they approve of a so-called “mansion tax” that would fundamentally change the way real estate transfers are taxed in the city. The language of the "Bring Chicago Home" referendum asks voters to decide whether the city should move from the current flat tax model on real estate transfers to a graduated tax, which would impact real estate transactions on all value levels. Supporters say that the ordinance would result in a reduction in the transfer tax for approximately...

Although the Ivies and other elite colleges and universities in the U.S. are financial titans, they are registered with the Internal Revenue Service as 501(c)(3) charitable nonprofit organizations. As a result, their vast property holdings are exempt from taxation in all 50 states. The rationale for this status is that higher education is an inherent public good. At least that has been the assumption under which this country has long operated. But this argument has increasingly been called into question by events over the last few years, culminating in the headline-making responses by university presidents to a recent congressional panel....

Americans are growing increasingly frustrated at property tax levels, a new poll has shown. According to a new UChicago Harris/AP-NORC poll, around two thirds of Americans surveyed believe their property tax rate is too high. The poll was conducted in 2023, between December 14 to 18, with 1,024 participants across all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The survey found 69 percent of adults in the U.S. believe their property tax rates were "unfair", with 27 percent saying they were "about right", and 3 percent claiming they are taxed too little. Across the country, property taxes, also known as...

Toronto residents could see a hefty 10.5% property tax hike as a result of this year’s budget deliberations, which will take place over the coming weeks. City Councillor Shelley Carroll, who is also budget chief for the City, confirmed the proposed increase on Wednesday morning. Prior to today, Carroll had only hinted at the increase, telling reporters earlier this week that it would be “substantial.” The proposed hike is higher than the city has seen in several years. For some context, former Toronto Mayor John Tory raised the property tax rate by just 2.9% in 2022 and by 5.5% in...

Soaring home insurance premiums in Florida are putting residents under unbearable financial pressure, with many telling Newsweek that they are considering leaving the state or moving somewhere cheaper within Florida. The state has currently the most expensive home insurance premiums in the country, according to a recent report by the Insurance Information Institute. Residents are currently paying on average more than $4,200 per year compared to the national average of $1,700, according to data from Triple I. While this is due in part to the increased risk of devastating weather events like hurricanes, other factors—including an excess of litigation and...

Less than 10 minutes into the new season of the hit Netflix reality show "Selling Sunset," two luxury real estate brokers are already complaining about a new tax on Los Angeles' wealthiest homebuyers. "This is going to be a nightmare for us," says veteran real estate agent Mary Fitzgerald. "We're just screwed." The city's so-called "mansion tax" was about to go into effect when the show was filming its latest season — and the high-end real estate industry was in a tizzy. The owner of one $26 million, 13,000-square-foot home the agents were trying to sell would have to pay...

In addition to the off-year elections to be decided this November in Virginia, Kentucky, Louisiana, and Mississippi, a number of ballot initiatives will be voted on in other states. Perhaps the most consequential measure appearing on the November 2023 ballot, at least when it comes to fiscal policy, is found in Colorado, where voters will be asked whether they want to weaken the nation’s strongest tax and expenditure limit in exchange for property tax relief. Proposition HH, which was referred to the November ballot by Colorado lawmakers with the support of Governor Jared Polis (D), would weaken the state’s Taxpayer’s...

Legislative Democrats have been scheming to kill Colorado’s Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, or TABOR, since before it was added to the state Constitution in 1992. Hardly a year goes by without a bill, proposal, “listening tour,” or lawsuit hatched to enable state legislators to spend money TABOR denies them. Now, they’re at it again. This time, they’ve proposed a Rube-Goldberg ballot initiative called Proposition HH. Some of its superficial details might seem novel — like lipstick on the proverbial pig — but it’s only the latest gambit in a political long-con that has gotten very, very old. That’s why the...

Property-tax relief? Hardly. Proposition HH on this fall’s statewide ballot is really about growing government. And it attempts to do that by piggybacking on public outrage over skyrocketing property tax bills. The proposal’s purported property-tax “relief” — served up by Gov. Jared Polis and his legislative allies as one part of their dizzyingly complicated scheme — is a ruse. As with every attempt to play politics with a crisis, there’s a hidden agenda. And that agenda is to snooker Colorado voters into letting the state keep and spend billions of dollars in surplus tax revenue that otherwise would have to...

Like a lot of Coloradans, residents of Costilla County balked at the changes to their property values because of what it means for their property taxes. Higher values, higher taxes. The county assessor is in charge of determining that value, but the values that people are getting back don't make much sense to them right now. Whether you are Joe C. Rodriguez who has lived in southern Colorado for 79 years, or Tom Philips who moved out there in 2021 for his retirement home, it's the same problem across the board. They both got increased values out of what they...

We’ll say it again now that Gov. Jared Polis has inked his purported “relief” for soaring property taxes: His plan is largely an illusion. Ignore the stagecraft of Wednesday’s signing ceremony for Senate Bill 23-303. It was a nice publicity stunt — the governor and assorted lawmakers turning up at the home of a Commerce City resident who supposedly would benefit. It was all sleight of hand. As we noted here only weeks ago, the Polis plan is as if someone offered to help you pay your bills — then reached into your pocket, grabbed your wallet, pulled out some...

The devil is in the details behind all the weekend media headlines proclaiming equal TABOR refunds, but only if voters approve Prop HH that is disguised as a property tax cut. It’s a con job that would make Charles Ponzi proud. The last hour bill comes as the legislative session grinds to a close today. It came with zero review or input from the public and most of your elected lawmakers. The bill — sponsored by Democratic Reps. Chris deGruy Kennedy and Mike Weissman, as well as Democratic Sens. Chris Hansen and Nick Hinrichsen — was immediately heard Saturday afternoon...

Suppose someone offers to help you pay your bills — then reaches into your pocket, grabs your wallet, pulls out some money and hands it to you. That’s more or less what Gov. Jared Polis and his Democratic allies who run the Legislature have in mind in promising “relief” for Coloradans facing skyrocketing property taxes. Unveiled by the governor at a Monday news conference and introduced the same day in the Legislature as Senate Bill 23-303, the complicated proposal would ask voters on next November’s statewide ballot to pay for a large part of their own property-tax relief. That’s right;...

If you’ve opened your property tax assessment you’ve already had your coronary. Your property value has gone up between 30% and 70%.. That means because the Legislature, under Democrat Gov. Bill Ritter, froze mill levy rates (preventing them from lowering) and because voters foolishly repealed the Gallagher Amendment in 2020, your property taxes are going to go up some 30% to 70% next year. But don’t worry. The same people who have put you in this bind are going to pantomime rescuing you just as the clock runs out on their legislative session. What heroes. The Colorado state Legislature, with...

It was a dream come true—or rather about to come true—when the Halls bought their forever home. It had everything they needed and more: five bedrooms, four bathrooms, a family room, a dining room, a roomy garage, good schools, and a good neighborhood. Sure, a fixer-upper, but they felt up to it. Prentiss Hall, a home improvement contractor, made it his life project, and everybody lent a hand—his wife, Tawanda, and six children, cousins, and friends. “We were really excited,” Tawanda told The Epoch Times. They negotiated the price down to $67,000—a bargain, perhaps, but the home demanded a daunting...

Homeowners across Colorado are bracing themselves for a hefty increase in their property tax bills. This is the year county assessors re-value homes and properties. On Wednesday, those assessors warned homeowners that the values are increasing from 30% to more than 60% in some counties. ... "The fact is that there is no reprieve for homeowners this year. From corner to corner of Douglas County and probably the state, all values have gone up quite significantly. If it's rural, if it's suburban, if it's large, if it's small, if it's expensive or inexpensive, all properties in Douglas County in the...

With less than a month left of the legislative session, Gov. Polis has yet to put forth any plan to prevent a looming bloodbath and cap residential property tax increases as he promised when voters repealed the Gallagher amendment. Republicans put forth their own plan to cap expected spikes of 40-50% to just five or ten percent over the next several years. But Democrats were ordered to kill those efforts and await the arrival of their hero governor, who would surely swoop in and save the day just in time for his planned 2024 presidential run. Yet the clock is...

Gov. Polis ran for reelection on promises of saving people money and state lawmakers claim one of their top priorities this session is finding ways to make housing more affordable. And yet they’re about to push homeowners and renters off a financial cliff when an enormous property tax bill of 26.5% comes due next year. Lawmakers could have done something to stop it, and there’s still time. But they’re too busy banning gun discharges on private property and legalizing drug injection sites to enable addicts. Michael Fields, president of the Advance Colorado Institute, writes in the Denver Post this week...

Audits of 12 school districts has state Auditor General Timothy DeFoor believing school boards are playing a “shell game” with taxpayer funds by moving money into reserve accounts to allow them to make a case for raising property tax rates. State laws limit how much school districts can raise property taxes and sets limits on those increases but allows for exceptions to be granted in one of two ways: ask voters’ permission through a referendum or ask the state Department of Education for a referendum exception. “These 12 districts collectively raised taxes 37 times during the four years we reviewed...

San Francisco's mayor is asking municipal departments to find significant savings as the embattled city braces for a $728 million budget deficit, predicted for the next two fiscal years. With some of the lowest office occupancy rates in the country, thanks to the tech companies that make the city's lifeblood retreating to remote work, San Francisco has seen residents move to the suburbs - pushed also by rising crime. The city's income from property taxes and office rates has plummeted, causing sleepless nights in City Hall. London Breed, the mayor, on Thursday asked municipal departments to identify ways to reduce...