“City warns Quincy residents their property taxes may rise” plus 2 more |
- City warns Quincy residents their property taxes may rise
- Atlanta property taxes: Working with the property tax
- Atlanta property taxes: Making tweaks
| City warns Quincy residents their property taxes may rise Posted: 25 Dec 2010 08:21 PM PST With a $4 million deficit projected for this fiscal year in Quincy, avoiding a property tax increase is proving harder and harder to do. At a City Council meeting last Monday night, Councilor John Keenan shook his head as he prepared the city for bad news. "The era of good feelings is about to end,'' he said. "Absent some windfall over the next few months, none of which seems to be forthcoming, we're going to have to give a good hard look at what we're going to be doing with taxes.'' This year, the property tax rate will go up to $13.42 per $1,000 of assessed value for residences and $27.85 for commercial property. But because of a drop in property values, the tax bill of the average single-family home will be the same as last year. For some time, Mayor Thomas Koch has been working to hold the line on taxes, and the city has not raised property taxes for two years. Quincy is one of 23 communities in the state not to raise taxes this year, and one of the few to accomplish it two years in a row. But that commitment isn't sustainable for the years ahead, Keenan said. Even in fiscal 2011, which began July 1, with tax levies officially staying the same, money is tight. Currently, the city is tracking slightly below estimated tax revenues, and $4 million is being cut from the medical insurance budget to compensate. It's an issue that will have to be addressed again in the spring, Keenan said. In addition, the city has no remaining free cash available to make up for shortfalls, and although Keenan said he didn't think the budget would be operating at a deficit, officials won't really know until later in the fiscal year. "We're going to have to realize that we can't keep this up, and at some point we're going to have to make deep cuts or some sort of a tax adjustment,'' he said. "When that will be? Time will tell. Hopefully, it will not be dramatic . . . but we do have to anticipate changes going forward.'' The mayor, however, is committed to not raising taxes, largely because he feels residents can't afford it, said Nick Puleo, the city's director of municipal finance. Although the city does not do budget forecasting, City Council President Kevin Coughlin said he expects a reduction in local aid, another factor that could affect Quincy tax levels in the coming years. In the meantime, "we have a lot of work to do to make sure that this [fiscal year] balances properly,'' Keenan said. © Copyright 2010 Globe Newspaper Company. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
| Atlanta property taxes: Working with the property tax Posted: 26 Dec 2010 04:00 AM PST For the AJC Day 8 of an 8-day series The housing crisis, the recession, soaring health care and pension costs and tax fatigue have all spelled big trouble for state and local governments. The property tax is the main source of revenue for local governments in the U.S., but the property tax is particularly unloved. It is a highly visible tax, paid a few times a year in large amounts, and is based on the value of property, irrespective of income. No surprise then, that many states and metropolitan regions would seek alternatives to the property tax — user fees, impact fees, local sales and income taxes, and an array of other instruments. Meanwhile, property tax caps, such as the one recently put in place in New Jersey, allow politicians to respond to the cry for property tax relief. Here's a contrary idea, however. The property tax is basically sound. It works the way it was intended, and its transparency reflects the best of local democracy. We get the bill, we pay the tax, and we see how the revenue is spent in local schools, and in the basic services that local government provides. By contrast, few taxpayers have any idea of the amount they spend annually on sales taxes, or see how the income taxes withheld from paychecks are actually spent. The property tax also stands up well compared with alternatives‚ funding by state governments to cities and towns, for example, which can be notoriously unreliable, or local sales and income taxes, which vary dramatically with economic activity and can promote suburban growth as municipalities compete for revenue from commercial development. This is not to say the property tax is perfect. It can be tweaked and managed in useful ways, however. Circuit breakers State and local governments can provide targeted property tax relief based on ability to pay. Property tax circuit breakers — aimed at preventing taxpayers from being overburdened by property taxes, just as electrical circuit breakers keep circuits from being overloaded by current — are in use in some form in 33 states, mostly for elderly taxpayers. The ingredients of a well-designed program include targeting taxpayers of all ages, limiting relief for high-value homes, broadly defining income and including Social Security checks as income. A simple and well-publicized application system can maximize taxpayer participation. Payments in lieu of taxes Voluntary PILOT contributions are collected from nonprofit charitable organizations in 117 municipalities across 18 states. The basic idea is that while nonprofits are exempt from paying property taxes, they might reasonably be asked to contribute a fraction of what they would pay in property taxes, to the mutual benefit of the towns and cities where they are located. Municipalities can use these funds without increasing property taxes for others. Tax caps that limit collections Both California and Massachusetts many years ago established property tax caps. But the devil is in the details in terms of how these caps actually work. The key is to limit collections, not assessments. The California experience has shown the dangers of assessed property value limits, which can result in higher property taxes for the very homeowners they are intended to assist, and can cause unpredictable new shifts in tax liabilities. Whatever property tax levy is deemed to be appropriate, it should be divided among the taxpayers in a fair and transparent manner. Homestead exemptions, hardship reductions and income-based circuit breaker tax relief can help needy individuals reduce or phase in their taxes. In all cases, a tax on property values should be based on accurate valuation. A tax cap based on assessment limits has been shown to be a bit of a blunt instrument. The property tax remains under fire, from New England to Florida and beyond. But there are clearly dangers in shifting to other forms of collecting revenue for basic services, including schools. There are plenty of misgivings in South Carolina after that state attempted such a shift from the property tax to the sales tax and has seen sales tax revenue plummet. Taking some of the steps described above might be a way to take a tried and true policy approach: to mend it, not end it. ON THE WEB This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
| Atlanta property taxes: Making tweaks Posted: 26 Dec 2010 04:00 AM PST For the AJC Day 8 of an 8-day series The housing crisis, the recession, soaring health care and pension costs and tax fatigue have all spelled big trouble for state and local governments. The property tax is the main source of revenue for local governments in the U.S., but the property tax is particularly unloved. It is a highly visible tax, paid a few times a year in large amounts, and is based on the value of property, irrespective of income. No surprise then, that many states and metropolitan regions would seek alternatives to the property tax — user fees, impact fees, local sales and income taxes, and an array of other instruments. Meanwhile, property tax caps, such as the one recently put in place in New Jersey, allow politicians to respond to the cry for property tax relief. Here's a contrary idea, however. The property tax is basically sound. It works the way it was intended, and its transparency reflects the best of local democracy. We get the bill, we pay the tax, and we see how the revenue is spent in local schools, and in the basic services that local government provides. By contrast, few taxpayers have any idea of the amount they spend annually on sales taxes, or see how the income taxes withheld from paychecks are actually spent. The property tax also stands up well compared with alternatives‚ funding by state governments to cities and towns, for example, which can be notoriously unreliable, or local sales and income taxes, which vary dramatically with economic activity and can promote suburban growth as municipalities compete for revenue from commercial development. This is not to say the property tax is perfect. It can be tweaked and managed in useful ways, however. Circuit breakers State and local governments can provide targeted property tax relief based on ability to pay. Property tax circuit breakers — aimed at preventing taxpayers from being overburdened by property taxes, just as electrical circuit breakers keep circuits from being overloaded by current — are in use in some form in 33 states, mostly for elderly taxpayers. The ingredients of a well-designed program include targeting taxpayers of all ages, limiting relief for high-value homes, broadly defining income and including Social Security checks as income. A simple and well-publicized application system can maximize taxpayer participation. Payments in lieu of taxes Voluntary PILOT contributions are collected from nonprofit charitable organizations in 117 municipalities across 18 states. The basic idea is that while nonprofits are exempt from paying property taxes, they might reasonably be asked to contribute a fraction of what they would pay in property taxes, to the mutual benefit of the towns and cities where they are located. Municipalities can use these funds without increasing property taxes for others. Tax caps that limit collections Both California and Massachusetts many years ago established property tax caps. But the devil is in the details in terms of how these caps actually work. The key is to limit collections, not assessments. The California experience has shown the dangers of assessed property value limits, which can result in higher property taxes for the very homeowners they are intended to assist, and can cause unpredictable new shifts in tax liabilities. Whatever property tax levy is deemed to be appropriate, it should be divided among the taxpayers in a fair and transparent manner. Homestead exemptions, hardship reductions and income-based circuit breaker tax relief can help needy individuals reduce or phase in their taxes. In all cases, a tax on property values should be based on accurate valuation. A tax cap based on assessment limits has been shown to be a bit of a blunt instrument. The property tax remains under fire, from New England to Florida and beyond. But there are clearly dangers in shifting to other forms of collecting revenue for basic services, including schools. There are plenty of misgivings in South Carolina after that state attempted such a shift from the property tax to the sales tax and has seen sales tax revenue plummet. Taking some of the steps described above might be a way to take a tried and true policy approach: to mend it, not end it. ON THE WEB This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
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