I’m rather torn when it comes to deciding which is more evil between property taxes and income taxes. While income taxes are a direct theft of your labor, property taxes make it impossible for one to actually own property. When a locality implements a property tax they are turning you from a property owner to a property renter, and failing to pay the rent will lead you to losing your property. This is incredibly insidious when you apply it to a homeowner who falls on hard times. Being unemployed sucks but owning a home would at least ensure you have someplace to sleep. That is unless you fail to pay your property tax and your kicked out onto the street with no job.
Thankfully North Dakota is looking at ending property taxes in its state:
Since Californians shrank their property taxes more than three decades ago by passing Proposition 13, people around the nation have echoed their dismay over such levies, putting forth plans to even them, simplify them, cap them, slash them. In an election here on Tuesday, residents of North Dakota will consider a measure that reaches far beyond any of that — one that abolishes the property tax entirely.
I hope this goes through because it would be a step towards absolute property rights. The state shouldn’t be able to take your property because you are unable, or merely unwilling, to pay an extortion fee.
I wish the state of Georgia would do this, that is the one bill I am worried about when I hopefully buy a house next month.
I agree this is very exciting news. We have been trying to dump it in Texas as well (we already don’t have an income tax). In the last Governor race there was a candidate who’s big push was dump property tax and raise our sales tax to between 9-12% to make up for it (including putting a sales tax on the selling of a house). It was a great plan. According to my calculations if I had that tax on my house when I bought it, it was the equivalent of 5 years of property taxes at the current rate, so anyone who stayed in their home 5+ years would come out ahead. It also prevents rising property values from gentrifying out the elderly and poor. Anyway Glenn Beck helped tank her campaign when she was polling at about 25% of the vote so they could secure it for Rick Perry again. The Libertarian candidate picked up the issue as well, but she only ended up getting 3% of the vote or so. I hope North Dakota does it, and sets a model for other states to follow. Like ND with all the oil up there we have a lot of gas drilling going on down here, so it is a similar setup.