Nashua Telegraph LTE on land tax rate...

[FrankChodorov]

http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?Date=20060623&Category=OPINION02&ArtNo=106230080&SectionCat=Sports02&Template=printart

Article published Jun 23, 2006
Land tax rate analysis quite an eye-opener

Nancy Frye, Nashua

A letter on June 10 mentions an income tax as a method of ?fair share payment? as opposed to the use of property taxes. I would like to address the issue of ?fair share.?

While analyzing the tax assessments in my immediate neighborhood, I included the land tax rate along with other pertinent property information. I know that I couldn?t possibly break down the building tax portion, but I expected that the land tax portion would follow a formula that was applied to everyone.

As the numbers were calculated, I noticed something perplexing. The land tax rate was lower for the properties that had the highest square footage. To state that even simpler, there was not ?one even rate? for everyone?s square footage.

Just for kicks, I looked at another neighborhood to run the numbers. And again, I found the same. The bigger lots received a discount, with the smaller lots paying the highest tax rate.

And, depending on what property you?re looking at, there were additional ?discounts? ? rates for a particular lot size in one neighborhood matched the same lot size in the other, yet one house popped out on the page with an apparent 50-cent discount per square foot.

When I asked an assessor if this was accurate ? that the burden of the land tax is carried by the smaller lots ? he replied: ?Let?s say you?re at the store buying a can of corn. If you buy just one can, it?ll cost you 99 cents. If you buy five or more, it?ll be 60 cents each.?

I was quite taken aback at that. While I understand that when you have undeveloped land you pay a lower rate, I was under the impression that once it?s improved on, it falls into a fair tax base.

What I?m talking about is no small change. The difference is in several dollars per square foot. Calculate that times the number of properties in Nashua.

If everyone paid their ?fair share,? we would not have a budget issue, much less such a horrid tax crunch, and the burden would no longer be carried by those that can least afford it.

[Dreepa]

Interesting comment.

Now I am going to have to go to the tax office and see about my town.

[Fluff and Stuff]

The LTE seemed like a bunch of nosense.  Land and housing values vary greatly in a city like Nashua.

[Dreepa]

If I have a one acre lot and you have a one acre lot next to me then the land portion of the taxes should be about the same.

[FrankChodorov]

If I have a one acre lot and you have a one acre lot next to me then the land portion of the taxes should be about the same.

yes in theory...because you are both subject to the same externalities (both positive and negative)

[Fluff and Stuff]

If I have a one acre lot and you have a one acre lot next to me then the land portion of the taxes should be about the same.

Maybe.  What if you have a better view, a well, rocky ground, flat ground, are on water, have access to high speed internet, and so on.  Also, maybe your house is nice and your yard looks better.  I thing everyone's property tax should be cut by over 50% but some differences in the current system make sense (I am not saying they all do).

[FrankChodorov]

If I have a one acre lot and you have a one acre lot next to me then the land portion of the taxes should be about the same.

Maybe.  What if you have a better view, a well, rocky ground, flat ground, are on water, have access to high speed internet, and so on.  Also, maybe your house is nice and your yard looks better.  I thing everyone's property tax should be cut by over 50% but some differences in the current system make sense (I am not saying they all do).

I believe he was suggesting that all things being equal...

a well, high-speed access, a nice house and yard are all labor-based property and not part of the assessment of land value.

[Fluff and Stuff]

If I have a one acre lot and you have a one acre lot next to me then the land portion of the taxes should be about the same.

Maybe.  What if you have a better view, a well, rocky ground, flat ground, are on water, have access to high speed internet, and so on.  Also, maybe your house is nice and your yard looks better.  I thing everyone's property tax should be cut by over 50% but some differences in the current system make sense (I am not saying they all do).

I believe he was suggesting that all things being equal...

a well, high-speed access, a nice house and yard are...not part of the assessment of land value.

Sure they are.

[FrankChodorov]

If I have a one acre lot and you have a one acre lot next to me then the land portion of the taxes should be about the same.

Maybe.  What if you have a better view, a well, rocky ground, flat ground, are on water, have access to high speed internet, and so on.  Also, maybe your house is nice and your yard looks better.  I thing everyone's property tax should be cut by over 50% but some differences in the current system make sense (I am not saying they all do).

I believe he was suggesting that all things being equal...

a well, high-speed access, a nice house and yard are...not part of the assessment of land value.

Sure they are.

they are an assessment of improved property values (capital/labor) not unimproved property value (land value)

[Fluff and Stuff]

they are an assessment of improved property values (capital/labor) not unimproved property value (land value)

If one property can have high speed internet or a water source and another cannot not, their prices will be different.

[FrankChodorov]

they are an assessment of improved property values (capital/labor) not unimproved property value (land value)

If one property can have high speed internet or a water source and another cannot not, their prices will be different.

right - if one property has access to public infrastructure (cable, sewer, water) and the other doesn't then it's land value would be higher because they are a positive externality.

but Dreepa said these properties are "next to each other" so if one does then more than likely the other does.

a water well if drilled on the property is strictly capital...

we all have an equal access right tot he water - there is no way of knowing how far one would have to drill to reach water but it is a pretty good guess to say they would be equal in depth, rate, and quality with two contiguous lots.

[Dreepa]

To clarify.... all the shit being equal.
There are 2 houses next to me and the lots are about the same size.  One lot has a dump on it and the other house is ok.

1.  Is the land portion of the tax the same?
2.  Is the house portion of the tax the same (I am 100% certain this is not true).

I am really interested in #1.  I will find out Monday when I go to the town clerks office.

[FrankChodorov]

To clarify.... all the shit being equal.
There are 2 houses next to me and the lots are about the same size.  One lot has a dump on it and the other house is ok.

1.  Is the land portion of the tax the same?
2.  Is the house portion of the tax the same (I am 100% certain this is not true).

I am really interested in #1.  I will find out Monday when I go to the town clerks office.

should be...

[Pat McCotter]

To clarify.... all the shit being equal.
There are 2 houses next to me and the lots are about the same size.  One lot has a dump on it and the other house is ok.

1.  Is the land portion of the tax the same?
2.  Is the house portion of the tax the same (I am 100% certain this is not true).

I am really interested in #1.  I will find out Monday when I go to the town clerks office.

should be...

Give me ambiguity or give me something else.