The latest is Ron Paul, a libertarian-Republican congressman from Texas who is often regarded as being the most free-market congressman, and who's revered by various free-market think tanks. He says that he wishes that in Texas, the state legislature would consider the following proposal:
Specifically, end the practice of annual assessments. Properties should be reassessed for tax purposes only when sold or ownership is otherwise transferred. The current system is terrifying for seniors forced to pay more and more each year, with no idea where they will find the money. And unlike other bills, property taxes must be paid or else one’s home can be taken away. My office hears from seniors who may have no choice but to leave Texas altogether because they cannot live with the uncertainty of arbitrary property tax increases. They literally fear losing their homes.
Now, I'm all for lower taxes, but they have to be lower for everyone. Ron Paul's proposal is simply crazy, and for several reasons.
First, it gives no incentive for people to elect conservatives who want to limit spending. Why? Because, under his proposal, their taxes cannot go up! Normally, when a community goes off and elects some liberals who want to spend a lot of money, they find that their taxes go up (and then as the tax base shrinks, their taxes go up some more). They start to question what value they're getting. However, Paul's proposal completely decouples these two things. The local populace can vote for all kinds of things, knowing that future home buyers are going to have to foot the bill.
Second, his proposal is simply unfair. It amounts to a subsidy from new homeowners to long-term homeowners. This is because without annual assessments, the increased tax burden will fall on the new homeowners. If you want lower taxes, fine. But if you don't apply the taxes uniformly, then you're not really having lower taxes, you have subsidizing by the unfavored group to the favored group. What about corporations or limited partnerships? The LP or LLC or whatever will own the property. Shares in that company can change hands, but without revaluation, the property taxes will be fixed in time.
Third, why should the government discourage mobility? Our economy is dynamic because people move to where the jobs are. (Compare this to a country like Germany, where people rarely move from one region to another). When the kids have left for college, the parents can buy a smaller house. But under this scenario of Paul's, there's a reward for not relocating, in lower property taxes. And downsizing to a smaller house may result in significantly higher property taxes. So people will be reluctant to relocate.
It also makes the cost of housing more expensive for younger people, who must buy a new house and therefore must shoulder a larger tax burden than older people who have lived in the same place.
Imagine the following quote:
Specifically, end the practice of annual rent increases. Rents should be raised only when the tenant ends the lease. The current system is terrifying for seniors forced to pay more and more each year, with no idea where they will find the money. And unlike other bills, rents must be paid or else one can be evicted. My office hears from seniors who may have no choice but to leave Texas altogether because they cannot live with the uncertainty of arbitrary rent increases. They literally fear losing their homes.
So how is a fixed property tax different from rent control? Now, you can say that you own the property and shouldn't be forced to pay taxes on it. Fine, but then do away with property taxes for everyone and find a different revenue stream, like the sales tax or income tax, to fund the government. The fact is, the government needs some money. Even the most die-hard libertarian realizes you need a court system, a law enforcement system, and some other items. You can debate how much government is ideal, but you need some. Therefore, you need some taxes. If you don't like property taxes, then abolish them for everyone. But if you are going to impose property taxes, impose them equitably.
Don't assess two identical houses at massively different rates. As for the argument that seniors cannot afford the increased taxes, there are sadly no guarantees in life. You buy an SUV and gas prices skyrocket, and you can't get gas at the old fixed price. Rents go up. When prices rise, you can either pay, or not purchase that product anymore. Not purchasing here implies that either you vote for conservatives who lower taxes, or you sell your house so you need not pay property taxes anymore.
Property taxes going up means that your house value is probably rising as well. This means that you could take out a Home Equity Line of Credit and pay the property taxes. Due to price appreciation, when you sell the house, you can pay the loan back.
Conservatives often propose similar schemes to Ron Paul's for property taxes. California has it in the form of Proposition 13. However, I think that conservatives would be better served if they proposed limits on increases in spending, or if they set a maximum tax rate on properties, but allowed those properties to be regularly reassessed. Taxes should be low, but they should also be fair.
Any tax cut that is not distributed among all people fairly is essentially a subsidy. Suppose that all houses in a neighborhood were regularly reassessed, and then were taxed at 1%. Everyone sent in their checks. Then the government figured out what the assessed rate was whenever you bought the house, and sent you a check for the difference. Some people would get nothing, some people would get a little and some people would get a lot.
Would you object to that? If not, why not? And if so, don't you also object to Ron Paul's proposal? Because in the end, it's the same thing. Everyone has the exact same cash flow under both my scenario and Ron Paul's proposal.
Keep this in mind during any property tax reform. Never altering the assessment creates massive distortions.
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