Actually, the bulk of the property taxes go to
schools. At least they used to. I lived north of
Milwaukee, right on the lake, in Port Washington.
Over 80% of our property taxes went to fund local
schools, and we didn't have a problem with that. That
being said, the mil rate that was used to calculate
taxes was the killer.
And yes, I have vivid memories of when our little city
of roughly 9,000 people was re-assessed in the early
90s. Property values had skyrocketed due to suburban
crawl from Milwaukee, and there were little 1950s 1000
square foot bungalows in older sections of the city
that had their assessed values go up 5x-7x or more.
Most of these had the original owners, or owner who
were older and if not retired, closely approaching it.
Many of them challenged their assessments and won.
The city had hired an assessment firm that had their
heads up their asses. For example, they had two
additional rooms in our house and another 400 square
feet in it (it was a two story cape that was a touch
under 3,000 sf.) We challenged and won as well.
That didn't help the older folks, though, because
their property values had still increased
substantially. It did some major damage to the
demographics of the city and drove a lot of people
out, unfortunately.
I would still go back.
The situation in Florida is rapidly approaching that
of the northern states, mainly because the tremendous
growth has overwhelmed the infrastructure, forcing
local governments to inflict substantial increases in
property taxes.
Our assessed value is around $168k. Our market or
"just" value is around $275k. 2007 taxes were $3500.
The house next door to us, which is nearly identical
in lot size and square footage, and has changed hands
twice since it was built, is assessed at $283k, with a
"just" value of $283k. Their 2007 taxes were $6300.
If we move and stay in the state, we lose our
homestead exemption and pay higher taxes. Not a lot
different from Wisconsin.
Dan
--- Tom Hargrave <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> The property tax situation in Metro Milwaukee is
> worse now. My wife has
> local friends who are making $700 / month house
> payments & $350 / month
> property tax payments.
>
> Every weekend I'm up there, I hear of fixed income
> elderly being forced to
> sell their (paid for) homes because they can no
> longer afford to pay
> property taxes.
>
> My house payment is about $700 / month and last
> year's property tax was $480
> - and that was for the entire year!
>
> Being from another Socialist state - NY state, and
> having lived a long time
> in both environments, I could climb further onto my
> soap box but would
> rather not.
>
> The short story is that residents of the northern
> states are screwed because
> they have to pay exorbitant costs for road repair
> and snow removal. And the
> costs propagate all the way through the system.
>
> We don't have these incremental costs in the south.
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