Does Donald Trump have any property in Texas? Thought he was a New York fella.RPB wrote:Don't get me started on how a sales tax is always a regressive tax which taxes poorer people a greater percent than it does Donald Trump according to their respective incomes, while she wants to eliminate the tax on all of Donald Trump type people's multiple properties only for us to make up the difference when I can barely buy material to keep my shack of a home repaired now and will pay higher sales taxes on those materials, and have no say in how they are spent. No thanks, I'll happily pay my $600 a year propery tax and help decide how it is spent ... locally.
I don't understand why this argument always brings up Donald. His taxes aren't any of my concern.
On the other hand, you only pay $600 a year in property taxes? You must live in a cardboard box. I pay over 20 times that. My property taxes are roughly 4 times the taxes I was paying in California, and that was for a house worth about 50% MORE than the one I have here.
Besides the outlandish property tax rates, part of the problem is that there is no control over property taxes. Either in the tax rate, or in the process of assessing the properties value. This makes it far too easy for the government to simply raise the rate, or the assessments, or both at whim. If Texas were to keep property tax, it is in desperate need of a California-style "Prop 13" -- which put restrictions on both the tax rate, and how much was allowed for the property to appreciate each year. That way the people can plan for how much they'll have to pay.
On the other hand, it would be far simpler to scrap it in favor of a sales-type tax. The advantage is that it widens the tax base, making it more difficult for the government to juggle the rates. And gets everybody involved in the cost of government.