A reader wrote in and asked if I had any comments on this article today in the Miami Herald: State pushing for Miami to slash budget further.
I didn't really have an opinion but let's see. I looked up Irene who has a homestead exemption. She has owned her townhome on NW 6th Street since 1982, paying $41,000 for it and her taxes are $650.85. her home is assessed at $62,362 market value.
You can bet your boots that Irene is using more than $650.85 of services. She pays $92 to the school board. She pay $100.20 for City of Miami operating.
Then we have Sherry who bought her home in Coconut Grove for $190,000 in 1995. Sherry paid $5,064 in taxes (she takes a homestead exemption). She paid $1,469 in school taxes and $1,600 to run the City. She paid $1,072.80 to the county.
Sherry's neighbor Kimberly bought her house is 2005 for $915,000. She has a homestead exemption. Kimberley paid $21,951.79 in taxes. Kimberley paid $6,739 to school taxes and $7,338.57 to run the City of Miami. (Her county taxes were $4,920 by the way).
Property taxes are just unfair. Kimberley is carrying a pretty big burden in taxes. Almost $2,000 a month compared to Irene's $50 dollars a months. How do you make sense of this readers? They all use the same percent of services...but they pay differing amounts depending mostly on when they bought their houses, and the price paid.
The county's bloated budget is almost as high as the city budget-- and the City of Miami provides most of the services. The City has to run, it needs taxes but when Irene is paying $10 a month...it can't run very smoothly.
11 comments:
So what is better? A sales tax on everything and no property tax? A 5% income tax and no property tax?
Something needs to be done. I am paying almost 7000 a year in taxes on one property. I paid 199,000 for it in late 1992...but it doesn't have homestead. It will be impossible to live there when I retire at this point. And when you factor in insurance, if I had to live there with someone helping with the costs, I could not afford it. (This is assuming I had no mortgage, with the mortgage I would to sell it asap)
A fair market assessment for everyone will have people all pay a fair share of the taxes. The homestead exemption and 3% maximum annual increase has created this problem of such unfair tax burdens. The sales tax is the most regressive type of tax hurting the poorest who can least afford it.
My point is -- no one should be paying $10 a month in taxes to the city. It is just not fair.
That is true, genius.
I think the sales tax thing is balanced. The more money you have the more expensive the items you purchase, and you pay more taxes. and pick and chose what is taxed. With food, make sure it is the non-life sustaining things that are taxed: beer and wine is not tax free, bread is. And who is to say the sales tax would greater than it is now? More people will be paying taxes, so maybe it would not be higher.
Everyone please remember we are in a state with no income tax. If you move to taxachussets,then you will experience a tax burden.
No please don't move to "taxachussets" where the sales tax is 5 percent, it does not apply to food, meds, or CLOTHES. The property taxes are quite reasonable and do not rise rapidly nor starkly when you buy a new or smaller home. Where there is now universal coverage for those without health insurance. Where there are world class universities, and a real economy based upon high technology. Where classes of people are not singled out for bias, unlike the homophobic Florida laws governed by a closeted governor. Where religions represent people from both the left and the right and motivate them to work together. Where there is more of a sense of community in its small towns, something the new towns and developed villages will never create. Where the homeowners insurance is a reasonable price, usually under 1 or one thousand dollars a year. No please don't move there. People like you would just ruin the place.
Maybe you cold move to New Hampshire, were everything is funded through property taxes, so then you could end up paying like 18,000 instead of 8,000.
Or instead of regressive taxes we could have a tax on the wealthy.
I am not a believer in this: "sales tax is the most regressive type of tax hurting the poorest who can least afford it." crap!
I don't think it hurts the poor, the most. Food, medicine, rent, and most services, are exempt from sales tax. If you are poor, the majority of your income is spent on those things (or at-least it should be). The poor shouldn't be blowing their "disscretionary" (albeit small) income on plasma screens, and unessasary items, that would take a bitter hit from a higher sales tax.'
At least with a sales tax, each person can personally control how much tax they pay. If you want to pay less taxes, buy less crap.
I'd rather control how much I pay in taxes, than let those County Commissioners, City Commissioners, and School Board members control how much I pay, by setting the milage rates and assessments.
I lived in taxachusetts for thirty years. the tax problem is that massachusetts has every possible tax. The taxes are everywhere and the cost of living is high. and if you think massachusetts is a bastion for tolerence, perhaps you were living in cambridge or brookline with the academic crowd.
I was the one who suggested genius to blog about the Herald's article. Great comments, but still missing the point. Why was Miami exempt from the list of cities that had to cut the budget??? now they are talking about a mistake by the analysts... another Lexus moment, I guess.
last anon
The point was -- the city of Miami -- since it had state oversight for so long -- second half of 90's maybe into early 2000 (Don't know) -- and is perceived to be just climbing out of it's hole...they escaped State mandates because of that. It is not so far off, it is a plausible answer. How do you feel about that...
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