Have you ever thought about your taxes keep going up? I’m referring to property taxes, which are the “only” tax New Hampshire has (we won’t go into the hidden taxes).
We brag that we don’t have an income tax, despite the best efforts of the legislature, an item that the opposition is willing to compromise on to get something they want more – a sales tax. Have you ever considered that you are paying taxes on fantasy money? I’m sure youhave, and here is how it works.
We pay a percentage of the assessed value of the property. Concord’s tax rate went down by 6.13% in 2021, so our tax rate is $25.12 per thousand. The assessed value of your property is compared to the “fair market value,” or what someone else has received for the property they sold. So, if a property is worth $25,000, you will pay $25.12 for every thousand that the property is worth = approximately $628. If my math is off, please forgive me – I am a better biologist than I am a mathematician.
Every once in a while, the properties are re-assessed. The properties are physically reviewed (heaven help you if you had to make necessary repairs because they are considered “improvements”), and values based on the sale prices of other “comparable” properties, known as “market” value, OR other approved methods.
The New Hampshire Municipal Association has all the information on their website: https://www.nhmunicipal.org/town-city-article/property-tax-understanding-math-dispelling-myths
For the sake of time and space, here’s my argument:
- What did you pay for your property?
- What does your town say that your property is now worth?
- Have you actually received the monetary difference between what you paid and what the property is supposedly worth? I haven’t, and I won’t, unless and until I sell my property.
- How many times do you pay for this imaginary sum of money? I pay every year. How many times will I receive the sale amount of this property? By my calculations, I will get it once, unless I do something illegal.
Do you see how it works?
You pay property tax that is based on what someone else paid for their property (fair market value). You are paying taxes on money that you haven’t received and don’t have EVERY YEAR. And usually, when the property is reassessed, that amount goes up. When you do sell your property, you pay tax on what you received for the sale (which you receive once).
As for the argument that your property gains equity, the only way to cash in on that equity, short of selling your property, is to take out a loan, which you have to pay back because the money isn’t really there – it’s based on what the property COULD be sold for.
Now let’s add insult to injury. I, myself, do not mind paying for municipal services such as firemen, police, garbage collectors, etc. They are mostly worth it. However, most of my taxes go to fund the school.
I am not satisfied with the quality of education in government schools. I have a degree in education; I homeschooled and developed the yearly curriculum for my student, so I know what an academic curriculum should look like. I also attended many Concord school board meetings, at which I was the only observer.
Taxpayers, do you realize that their academic instruction is based, not on the knowledge necessary for a successful life, but on federal testing requirements? What’s on those tests?
These children are our future.
Are you aware of the attitude school boards and superintendents have towards families? Do you realize that government schools have become extensions of the Department of Health and Human Services and that the school boards are, in reality, controlled by the superintendent? Do you realize how much funding comes from the federal government for the schools and they have to “teach” the popular narrative for that year?
The list of questions can go on.
But I have one more. Do you know that most of your property taxes go to fund the schools?
I am not satisfied with the quality of education that our children are force-fed. I don’t agree with teaching confusion about gender, or other sexual perversions in ever younger grades, or ANY grade.
I don’t agree with “education” that teaches children to hate each other, themselves, their families, and everything else. I had a problem way back when students could no longer count change without a calculator. Forget about slide rules. Well, that dates me.
My point is, why should we be forced to pay for something that we don’t agree with, that isn’t producing good results. A system that thinks that parents/grandparents are “in the way,” and is not accountable for their actions?
Why should we pay for a broken, unserviceable system?
It’s time to starve the beast (the government school system – NOT the municipal) and withhold the funding that, when we pay it, gives our consent to their irresponsibility. Not to mention the constitutional questions regarding the system of taxation in this State.
