DGS49
Diamond Member
In my home town of Pittsburgh (where nobody actually lives) there is a brouhaha currently over the County Executive's proposal to increase the millage rate for County taxes. It's only money so I don't care about it, but to me it raises an interesting issue.
For some reason our county (Allegheny) cannot do periodic system-wide reassessments. My cynical side says that the reason is because government employees are incompetent and lazy, but regardless, it "cannot" be done, and it hasn't been done in a generation. To avoid screwing property purchasers and people who build new houses, we have a "base year" assessment program that calculates what the property would have been worth in the Base Year (even if it didn't exist), then calculates the taxes based on that mythical value.
For this reason, County tax revenues do not go up at the same rate as county real estate values (and the cost of doing what the County does) and the executives have to raise taxes from time to time. What they do is propose an outrageously high tax increase, live through the weeping and gnashing of teeth and the local TV stations' interviews of old ladies who will have to become homeless if this happens. Then they cut it in half and raise the taxes by the amount that they intended to in the first place, telling "us" that we have dodged a bullet and should be grateful.
But seriously, if they just reassessed the property every couple years (this is the age of computers, is it not?), then we wouldn't have to go through this bullshit. Our taxes would go up, but there would be some logic to it.
And the same principle should apply to income taxes that are collected as a percentage of earnings. They should NEVER have to be increased. Especially if there is a graduated tax chart, and tax revenues increased at a rate greater than everyone's income.
If you have a fixed tax like a per Capita tax or a fixed amount, like the Federal gasoline tax, then it makes sense to have to increase that amount from time to time, but for other taxes, they should never have to be increased. Temporarily in times of war or national emergency, but after the cause goes away, the rates should revert to the norm.
Parenthetically, how long will it be before the Feds start charging a "road tax"' to EV owners who pay no gasoline tax? It's the right thing to do, eh?
For some reason our county (Allegheny) cannot do periodic system-wide reassessments. My cynical side says that the reason is because government employees are incompetent and lazy, but regardless, it "cannot" be done, and it hasn't been done in a generation. To avoid screwing property purchasers and people who build new houses, we have a "base year" assessment program that calculates what the property would have been worth in the Base Year (even if it didn't exist), then calculates the taxes based on that mythical value.
For this reason, County tax revenues do not go up at the same rate as county real estate values (and the cost of doing what the County does) and the executives have to raise taxes from time to time. What they do is propose an outrageously high tax increase, live through the weeping and gnashing of teeth and the local TV stations' interviews of old ladies who will have to become homeless if this happens. Then they cut it in half and raise the taxes by the amount that they intended to in the first place, telling "us" that we have dodged a bullet and should be grateful.
But seriously, if they just reassessed the property every couple years (this is the age of computers, is it not?), then we wouldn't have to go through this bullshit. Our taxes would go up, but there would be some logic to it.
And the same principle should apply to income taxes that are collected as a percentage of earnings. They should NEVER have to be increased. Especially if there is a graduated tax chart, and tax revenues increased at a rate greater than everyone's income.
If you have a fixed tax like a per Capita tax or a fixed amount, like the Federal gasoline tax, then it makes sense to have to increase that amount from time to time, but for other taxes, they should never have to be increased. Temporarily in times of war or national emergency, but after the cause goes away, the rates should revert to the norm.
Parenthetically, how long will it be before the Feds start charging a "road tax"' to EV owners who pay no gasoline tax? It's the right thing to do, eh?