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Vail Daily’s Wisdom from the Web

Vail Daily StaffVail, CO, Coloradonewsroom@vaildaily.com

Editorial: Boards should give taxpayers a breakGreat article by the Vail Daily Editorial Board; however, it should have been written in December 2008. That is when the districts and boards make the final decision on what the mill levy will be for the next year. The result of 2008 frozen mill levies and the extra windfall property taxes collected for the last two years has been simple . Folks understand the county taxing authorities and the state are not a very friendly place to live for seniors and those on fixed income. We all get small 3 percent to 6 percent pension raises and you get a 38 percent property tax increases for the last two years and now a 10 percent to 45 percent property tax increase this year. Have you all noticed some of your very longtime friends are moving to other states. Yes they are and so will many others this year. By the time our taxing authority board members wake up, most of their friends will be gone! You want to over tax us? Thats fine and you have the authority, but most of us will vote with our feetbomber guyDon (Rogers), we dont pay much in property taxes. In 2008, my wife and I paid $1,800 in property taxes on our $500,000 condo in Homestead. The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) has statistics on the average property tax rates by state on their Web site at http://www.nahb.org/fileUpload_details.aspx?contentTypeID=3&contentID=76984&subContentID=105281. If we owned a $500,000 home in the following states, here is what average property taxes would be (and Im sure these have gone up): New York – $5,940, California – $2,385, Connecticut – $7,120, Illinois – $7,895, Florida – $3,945, Nebraska – $8,345, Michigan – $6,280, Pennsylvania – $7,345, and Texas – $9,085. We pay some of the lowest property taxes in the United States. Don and bomber guy — The real question is, what do you think right-sized government costs? Tough call, eh? Believe me, our town employees, county employees, sanitation workers, and teachers dont make a killing.localknowledgeDear localknowledge: Your numbers are right, but in the case of CA, your property taxes cannot go up more than 1% a year for the life of ownership and the tax rate is FIXED based on the original value of your property the day you bought there! Property tax fees are based on your original purchase price/original value of your home!….Prop 13 brought MANY new businesses and homeowners to CA btw. Their economy had skyrocketed, until they became a welfare state, that is.hm123


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