End Property Tax At 65?!

[Reagan]

 

Thoughts?!

[5GallonBucket]

What replaces it?

If anything cut spending and lower taxes.

 

[tvc184]

Obviously anything that is cut has to be made up somewhere. 

Raise taxes and fees or cut spending or a combination. 

 The biggest question to get the discussion started, what percentage of property taxes come from a homestead of people 65 or older. Before that is know there is no point in looking into it. 

Is it 1% of property taxes collected or 8%? 

[baddog]

That would be sweet. I don’t think anyone with kids who have graduated should pay school taxes. That’s just me. I’m a baby boomer and have paid dearly all my life and should get a break in my latter years. Why shouldn’t money be directed to people who have helped make the system work? Misuse of funds is why everything struggles. 

[CardinalBacker]

Seniors already get a healthy break on their property tax bill (in addition to their homestead exemption) upon turning 65. They can also defer payment of their taxes… but the bills will still pile up with late fees, etc… they just don’t have to pay for now-it will get paid eventually, though. 
 

The “I don’t even have kids in school” argument is a dumb one. How about the “I don’t live on a county road, I shouldn’t pay county road and bridge taxes?” Nobody says “I’ve never had a house fire… I shouldn’t have to pay for an emergency services district, either.”

 

The average cost to educate a student in Texas is running about $10k per year. That amount should need some justification, but that’s a different argument.  BUT it would cost a family with three kids $30k a year for education if only the people with kids in school paid for education, and nobody can afford that. The latest round of tax relief focused heavily on property with homestead exemptions and ignored non-exempt properties (think second homes, rent houses, commercial property, etc…) that might win votes, but it hurts a lot of people and businesses. When the burden gets shifted from one group to another, there will be repercussions such as higher rental rates, etc. 
 

If you want to affect change, attack spending at large… don’t focus on trying to get out of paying for yourself and shoving the responsibility of paying onto others is what I always preach. 

[baddog]

2 hours ago, CardinalBacker said:

Seniors already get a healthy break on their property tax bill (in addition to their homestead exemption) upon turning 65. They can also defer payment of their taxes… but the bills will still pile up with late fees, etc… they just don’t have to pay for now-it will get paid eventually, though. 
 

The “I don’t even have kids in school” argument is a dumb one. How about the “I don’t live on a county road, I shouldn’t pay county road and bridge taxes?” Nobody says “I’ve never had a house fire… I shouldn’t have to pay for an emergency services district, either.”

 

The average cost to educate a student in Texas is running about $10k per year. That amount should need some justification, but that’s a different argument.  BUT it would cost a family with three kids $30k a year for education if only the people with kids in school paid for education, and nobody can afford that. The latest round of tax relief focused heavily on property with homestead exemptions and ignored non-exempt properties (think second homes, rent houses, commercial property, etc…) that might win votes, but it hurts a lot of people and businesses. When the burden gets shifted from one group to another, there will be repercussions such as higher rental rates, etc. 
 

If you want to affect change, attack spending at large… don’t focus on trying to get out of paying for yourself and shoving the responsibility of paying onto others is what I always preach. 

Your analogies are always dumb at best, but we’re used to that. Everyone tries to get out of paying if possible. I do it so that maybe they can up yours. 

[BS Wildcats]

Tax groceries at the grocery store and do away with property taxes, see Louisiana.  Property taxes are a way to get screwed by the government.

[CardinalBacker]

7 hours ago, BS Wildcats said:

Tax groceries at the grocery store and do away with property taxes, see Louisiana.  Property taxes are a way to get screwed by the government.

I hear what you’re saying, BUT… that hammers the hell out of poor people and the ones with multiple properties don’t eat any more than the poor ones. In fact, you’d basically just be taxing a lot of peoples’ EBT payments. The government  can’t get ahead by taxing what they’re already borrowing to give to people. 
 

I think well off people should pay more… but the scale as it exists is broken. 
 

For the sake of argument, my mom’s house in Groves is valued at $125k. 2/1/1 on a slab.  Her tax bill is $850/year. Without exemptions, her bill would be 3200. It’s right on JCAD’s website. The problem is this…. If someone tries to rent out an identical house, they’d expect to get, what… $1200/month? If you take into account that homeowners/windstorm/flood is a minimum of another $2k per year, you’d need $5k a year just to cover the taxes and insurance. That’s four months (1/3 of the year) just to cover those costs, not counting a potential mortgage payment. But then everybody cries about how expensive rents are… you can’t tax the hell out of non-homestead property to make up for gifts given to homeowners in the form of big tax cuts. It just doesn’t work. 
 

Ten acres in Lumberton? I’ve got a buddy with 10 acres in Lumberton on HWY 69. Prime property… it’s his retirement plan. Sale it one day and cash in. The CAD decided that it no longer qualifies for a special use valuation (timber) and stripped his “exemption.” His 2023 tax bill jumped from $25 to $22,000…. It’s insane.  

[SmashMouth]

22 hours ago, BS Wildcats said:

Tax groceries at the grocery store and do away with property taxes, see Louisiana.  Property taxes are a way to get screwed by the government.

Louisiana also has state income tax too. Let's don't go down that rabbit hole...

[Separation Scientist]

On 4/18/2024 at 9:04 PM, tvc184 said:

Obviously anything that is cut has to be made up somewhere. 

... or cut spending

Will never, ever happen. Ever. 

[SmashMouth]

1 hour ago, Separation Scientist said:

Will never, ever happen. Ever. 

EVER!