Quote:
Originally Posted by ITD
Taxes go up because politicians and voters (if town meeting) spend more, that's the only reason. Increased property values have little to do with it.
Towns vote to spend money. They total up all the spending and come up with a levy. This is the total amount of money they need to collect. Then the figure out the assessed value of all the taxable properties, use the levy and the valuation to determine the tax rate, which is basically a multiplier, a meaningless number other than it's usefulness to apportion your share of the levy based on your percentage of the the total taxable property used.
Increased spending causes taxes to go up, not property values.
The only disclaimer is that if for some reason your property increases in value more than the town wide average increases your taxes may increase more than your neighbor, because your portion of the levy increased.
We need to stop this myth that increased assessments cause taxes to increase, that is not true. Every dollar of that increased tax has to be voted on by politicians and voters, who vote either directly via town meeting, or indirectly via the politicians they elect in non-town meeting municipalities.
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Okay, but when property values increase, I've always felt it sort of gives politicians/voters the idea they have more money without having to increase the tax rate. So, with this 'permission' they are less reluctant to curb the temptation to spend. It's a bit of smoke and mirrors but I think higher property values do have a role in the spending decisions that follow and in resultant future tax hikes. They don't directly 'cause' tax increases but they may 'encourage' additional spending. And once those expenditures occur, it's difficult to pull back when property values decrease. It's then that tax rates must increase.