“Brevard manager suggests property tax rate increase” plus 3 more

Brevard manager suggests property tax rate increase
County sets property tax foreclosure auction
County property tax bills out; values unclear
China Mulls Property Tax Structure,

Five Filters featured article: The Art of Looking Prime Ministerial - The 2010 UK General Election. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Brevard manager suggests property tax rate increase

Posted: 06 May 2010 08:28 AM PDT

By Leigh Kelley
Times-News Staff Writer

BREVARD -- Brevard taxpayers could see a 4.5 cent property tax rate increase if City Council adopts a recommendation made by City Manager Joe Moore during a budget message at Monday's meeting.

The city has not had a property tax rate increase for the past several years, but Brevard is at the point where some needs, especially capital improvements, cannot be put off any longer, Moore told council members.

The city also has reached the stage in its development where it needs a city engineer.

"We're just getting too complex and technical to not have in-house expertise in this area," he said. "The property tax rate is not matching the cost of providing services. I think we are at the point where we cannot get by with this anymore."

The city's property tax rate for 2009-10 is 38.75 cents per $100 valuation. A homeowner with a house valued at $200,000 currently pays property tax of $775 a year based on that rate. The same homeowner could pay $865 in property tax a year with a rate of 43.25, or a 4.5 cent increase. That's a difference of $90.

But Moore said he would not be in favor of an increase in utility rates because it would put too much of a burden on people, many of whom are already facing tough economic times.

He also told council members that Brevard needs a five-year capital improvement plan to deal with aging infrastructure and equipment. The city needs to dedicate specific revenues to specific uses; for instance, earmarking impact fees for infrastructure improvements.

Other recommendations

The city manager's budget recommendations also included expanding the city's water inflow and infiltration program in addition to evaluating water capacity.

Moore said that going to a performance-based method of awarding pay raises instead of automatic cost of living increases would be more efficient and provide cost savings to the city.

"Within five years, 25 percent of our staff will be eligible for retirement," he said. "We need to have a salary survey done and start doing some succession planning."

The council will have its first work session on the 2010-11 budget on Monday, May 10.

Five Filters featured article: The Art of Looking Prime Ministerial - The 2010 UK General Election. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

County sets property tax foreclosure auction

Posted: 06 May 2010 12:06 PM PDT

WAILUKU - The county will hold its first property tax foreclosure auction in more than 13 years later this month.

The sale of 24 properties is scheduled for May 25 at the Kihei Community Center. Doors will open at 8:30 a.m. There will be opening remarks at 9 a.m., and the auction will begin at 9:30 a.m.

Information about the auction, including a list of properties, is available at www. mauicounty.gov/index.aspx?NID=576.

The county's last property tax foreclosure was in 1997.

The properties being auctioned owe a combined total of $420,646 in unpaid property taxes and have been delinquent for more than three years and received a final notice of tax sale. The tax debts will be paid with the proceeds of its sale, with any profits over that amount going to the landowner.

For more information, call the Real Property Tax Division at 270-7697.

Five Filters featured article: The Art of Looking Prime Ministerial - The 2010 UK General Election. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

County property tax bills out; values unclear

Posted: 06 May 2010 05:28 AM PDT

More than 50,000 Galveston County homeowners received their property appraisals, but it will be another week before there will be a clear picture on how much property values in the county increased — or decreased — the top appraisal district official said.

Galveston Central Appraisal District Chief Appraiser Ken Wright said his agency is ahead of schedule in getting appraisals to property owners, but the property values are sent in phases. The appraisals are used to determine how much a property owner will pay in taxes.

Tax bills based on those values will be sent out in the fall.

Phase 1 includes the county's residential property and land owners, while Phase 2 includes the commercial and industrial property values.

The commercial and industrial values were not sent out until Wednesday. Once that part of the process was complete, the district would be able to calculate how property values fared in the county, Wright said.

Already, residential property owners are barking that values are too high, especially given the ongoing recovery from Hurricane Ike and the economic recession.

Wright said from what he had seen, property values have not increased that much.

Still, some property owners with homestead exemptions could see a much bigger increase later this year should the attorney general issue an opinion based on a request from the county.

By law, values of homesteaded properties cannot increase more than 10 percent of the value from the previous appraisal year. However, Wright had argued properties severely damaged by the hurricane but since restored to pre-Hurricane condition should be subject to pre-disaster baseline values.

After Hurricane Ike, the value of hundreds of properties across the county dropped, many by as much as 90 percent. In some cases, especially on the Bolivar Peninsula and in Galveston where houses were washed away, the only value assessed in 2009 was on the land.

State law allows a homeowner to keep a homestead exemption for up to two years after disasters, including hurricanes and fires.

At the urging of Tax Assessor-Collector Cheryl Johnson, the county is seeking an attorney general's opinion based on the argument that even if a homeowner rebuilt a house to pre-Ike conditions, he or she should not see an increase of more than 10 percent from last year's values.

As an example, a home that was valued at $160,000 before Hurricane Ike but was severely damaged and had its value in 2009 lowered to $20,000 could not be valued at more than $22,000 when it is next appraised, Johnson said, citing the 10 percent cap.

Wright disagrees. He said the market value should be determined using that original $160,000 as a baseline.

Should the attorney general rule that the homesteads could go above the cap, Wright said new appraisals would be issued.

Five Filters featured article: The Art of Looking Prime Ministerial - The 2010 UK General Election. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

China Mulls Property Tax Structure,

Posted: 06 May 2010 05:22 AM PDT

China Mulls Property Tax Structure, by Mary Swire, Tax-News.com, Hong Kong
Last updated 8 hours ago | Thursday, May 06, 2010

An annual tax on property ownership to be piloted in four of China's largest cities this year may be different from the expected property tax.

The central government's real estate tax plans, to be piloted in the cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Chongqing and Shenzhen within the year and later applied nationally, could apply to owner-occupied as well as commercial properties, a report in the Economic Observer (EO) has surmised.

The EO reported that the People's Bank of China, China's Banking Regulatory Commission, the State Administration of Taxation, the Ministry of Land and Resources, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Public Security have held discussions to decide when and how to impose the property tax.

What has been gleaned from these discussions is that local government revenue shortfalls are the driving force behind the intitiative and not the overheated property market. Legal obstacles and a lack of consensus on the structure of the tax have been the main stumbling block.

As a totally new tax it would need approval from the National People's Congress, a lengthy process, but a real estate tax based on an existing tax imposed under a temporary regulation may only require State Council approval. Existing land taxes need not be affected by the introduction of such a real estate tax.

Reform of local land transfer fees is also thought to be desirable by the government, because the current system is thought to lead to too much local corruption, forced relocation, thuggery and such like.

The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) annual "blue book" on China's real-estate market advocates an ownership tax based on a property's size and the number of properties held by the taxpayer. It also proposes a holding tax on idle land and unsold properties to damp down property speculation.

CASS recommended that China simplify its transaction tax system by eliminating some of the taxes related to property transactions, such as stamp duty. CASS suggests that there are unintended consequences with such additional taxes; transaction taxes may drive up prices and even depress supply.

At a press briefing, CASS said that residential units used as a primary residence should be exempt from the property-ownership tax, especially those with a modest floor area or price. Rented apartments could also be exempted to increase supply, it said. The prime target of such a tax would be speculative investors who keep properties vacant, a typical investment tactic in China in view of its underdeveloped capital markets.

Jia Kang, director of the Research Institute for Fiscal Science under the Ministry of Finance, when interviewed by the People's Daily said that property taxes were necessary as a "major, stable and growing source of tax revenues" to enable local government to fulfill growing responsibilities.

He approved of it as a "tax constraint" on runaway property prices and referred to the "positive effects of collecting property taxes in China where urbanization has just begun". Jia told the paper that land resources were exceptionally scarce and fluctuations in the housing market posed a significant problem. Jia also approved of the reallocation of resources effect, increasing costs to high-income people with several houses in order to improve the status of low-income people.

Property Tax

Thursday, May 6, 2010