🚀 go-pugleaf

In ye olden post tylerh@alumni.caltech.edu (Tyler R. Holcomb) spake...
>
>1.  Sales Taxes are *very* regressive.  This fact is so well established that
>I won't bore you with a blizzard of references.  If you're so dense you can't
>figure this out for yourself, e-mail me.  (that rant wasn't for Mr. Linley).

When these "temporary" sales taxes make good on their claim, I'll be happy
to shut up. But if the above fact is "so well established" why is exactly the
opposite hapening right now? Sales tax in L.A. county has gone from 6% to
8.25% and I don't see a return to 6% ever materializing in the near future.
It doesn't matter how you shuffle the internal state/county/whatever pieces
of the tax to show that one part is decreasing. It only matters that the
total just keeps going up, to the consumer anyway.

>2.  I never realized that recgnizing that I pay more in property taxes for my
>shoe-box condo than someone I know who lives in an $800,000 dollar house makes
>me a "snotty jealous impatient whiner."  Given how heavily subsidized
>residential real estate already is (mortgage interest tax deduction,
>rolloever of capital gains, Fannie Mae, etc), why are these same
>folks entitled an additional tax break at my kid's school's expense?  
>Notice, PROP 13 is a benefit ONLY if you are sitting on a capital gain.
>If the taxes are so crushing, you could always sell the house,
>collect your capital gain, and move to a cheaper place.

Why should someone be forced out of one's house due to changeing real estate
values which are totally beyond the control of the home owner. Furthermore,
property taxes held low by prop 13 do not run with the land forever, when the
house is sold or inherited, its property tax will be reassessed based on its
current market value. Hearding the old-folk homeowners into cheaper places
is not an acceptable solution. They've not only paid their share to the local
school for their own children but for several generations of school children
thereafter, including yours. What have you paid toward their children's
schooling? Prop 13 is nothing more than the democrats favorite excuse for
not being able to raise money for all the gov't expanding they want to do.
They want you to believe that _every_ homeowner is paying 10 times less
in property taxes than new home buyers. They want you to be angry at the
people who just want to enjoy their golden years without worrying about being
taxed out onto the street or into the ghetto. They want you to belive lies.

>Or get a reverse mortgage.

Pay more for what you already have... unbelievable. Tell that to the retired
homeowners just getting by on their social security or finite retirement
pension.

-- 
Bruce James Robert Linley  ----  linley@netcom.com  ----  Amateur radio: KE6EQZ
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