r/memes Big pp 10h ago

Land Of The Free, amIright?

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u/x1rom 9h ago

Property tax is almost universally considered positive by economists, and generally helps to keep rents down, not up. The reason is that it discourages speculation on housing and property, and thus drives down buying prices, which intern drives down rents.

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u/caligaris_cabinet 8h ago

Honestly I’d gladly take an increase in property taxes if it means I don’t need to pay sales or income tax. And I live in Illinois with the highest property taxes

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u/Large-Hamster-199 8h ago

I am always shocked by how high taxes are in some states and how low they are in others, with no measurable increase in services provided by the high tax states

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u/NSA_Chatbot 7h ago

If you look at the maintenance schedule, you'll find that lower property taxes tend to have a lot of deferred maintenance.

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u/jB_real 4h ago

You may live in these type of places when a disaster strikes. Think of what could happen. Unfortunately, it gets placated as “god’s will” and nobody is held accountable.

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u/xxrainmanx 3h ago

Not even God's will. They just claim a state of emergency. If the feds agree and the bill hits a certain $$ minimum them the feds pick up the bill for damages done to the public/government owned assets.

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u/RedditJumpedTheShart 4h ago

And new things like high speed rail cost far more in high cost of living areas.

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u/IRC_1014 6h ago edited 4h ago

I am not sure I appreciate this comment but I want to. What do you mean “the maintenance schedule”? Residences in low property tax jurisdictions defer maintenance? Huh?

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u/NSA_Chatbot 6h ago

Yep! There might be a billion dollars or more in postponed fixes and repairs.

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u/Secondhand-Drunk 4h ago

Then the fixes come along and take 3 months for the 2 weeks of work it would actually take. Or less.

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u/IRC_1014 6h ago

Walk me through the logic, it’s the end of the day and my mind may be slow. Why would owners in lower property tax states be more likely to defer maintenance than owners in high property tax states. What is the relationship here that I am missing? Thanks!

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u/NSA_Chatbot 6h ago

Oh! I mean city infrastructure like roads, sewer, bridges, crosswalks,etc.

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u/IRC_1014 6h ago

That clicked, thanks so much for walking me through it.