Silent demonstrator meets his match

[Dave Ridley]

Just a quick report on my silent demo against the View Tax at the Department of Revenue Administration.

After standing in their lobby just four minutes the Commissioner himself came out, shook my hand and talked my ear off for 20 minutes trying to win me over.   He almost made me late for my next demo!   This was the most effective response I have ever seen by an official, and I appreciated it.   Rather than being forced out I was practically forced to stay!

He said he doesn't have control over the valuations and when I pointed at the part of the flyer asking him what he could do to reduce the amount of harm he's causing, he answered that there is nothing more he can do.  But maybe he'll think of something.  I may write him a thank you note, something I"ve never done for any other silent demo recipient.

[FrankChodorov]

He said he doesn't have control over the valuations and when I pointed at the part of the flyer asking him what he could do to reduce the amount of harm he's causing, he answered that there is nothing more he can do.

and there is nothing anyone else can do because there is no "view tax" there is only a "view factor" and it is just one aspect of all the different factors that are taken into account when making a MARKET VALUATION (not to be confused with personal utility value) assessment.

[anthonybpugh]

Don't write him.  If you do that then word will get around.  Then everyone will be overly polite and you won't have anymore fun. 

[John]

Don't write him.  If you do that then word will get around.  Then everyone will be overly polite and you won't have anymore fun. 

Clearly the word is already spreading - and that is GOOD.  THANKS DAVE!
When "everyone" is polite I think we are winning.
Thanks for being an exelent example of polite Dave.  You guys sure are a good influence on me (and others): I think of myself as a quite moral person, but you guys help me to be "nicer/more polite" to folks on the other side of Liberty.

[John]

Then everyone will be overly polite and you won't have anymore fun.

There's an old saying: "Sure is better than a poke in the eye."
I'll take "overly polite" over a Brutal Police State any day.
Fun?  I think it is kind of fun to STAND UP for peaceful co-existance (or remain seated  if the situation calls for it) . . .

[anthonybpugh]

"Good evening sir, I will be your mugger tonight.  I will like to kindly ask that you hand over your wallet and your keys.  Otherwise I will unfortunately have to blow your head off and it would be a pity to ruin your coat.  I know how busy you must be so if we can hurry, we can each be on their way.  Thank you sir and might I add that I love your tie.  Sorry for the inconvenience and Good night."   

Yeah, That would be better.  I take back everything I said.

[Kat Kanning]

lol

[Fluff and Stuff]

"Good evening sir, I will be your mugger tonight.  I will like to kindly ask that you hand over your wallet and your keys.  Otherwise I will unfortunately have to blow your head off and it would be a pity to ruin your coat.  I know how busy you must be so if we can hurry, we can each be on their way.  Thank you sir and might I add that I love your tie.  Sorry for the inconvenience and Good night."   

Yeah, That would be better.  I take back everything I said.

They had a movie about that.  A couple of real nice bank robbers.  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0219965/

[Fluff and Stuff]

He said he doesn't have control over the valuations and when I pointed at the part of the flyer asking him what he could do to reduce the amount of harm he's causing, he answered that there is nothing more he can do.

and there is nothing anyone else can do because there is no "view tax" there is only a "view factor" and it is just one aspect of all the different factors that are taken into account when making a MARKET VALUATION (not to be confused with personal utility value) assessment.

You have a good point.  My understanding is that what is happening is these houses are being dramaticly overvalued (because of a good view) and then taxed at that highly inflated price.  Isn't that right?  And they are doing this even though the house would sell for much less than this made-up price.  If what I am saying is correct, it certainly sounds criminal.

[FrankChodorov]

He said he doesn't have control over the valuations and when I pointed at the part of the flyer asking him what he could do to reduce the amount of harm he's causing, he answered that there is nothing more he can do.

and there is nothing anyone else can do because there is no "view tax" there is only a "view factor" and it is just one aspect of all the different factors that are taken into account when making a MARKET VALUATION (not to be confused with personal utility value) assessment.

You have a good point.  My understanding is that what is happening is these houses are being dramaticly overvalued (because of a good view) and then taxed at that highly inflated price.  Isn't that right?  And they are doing this even though the house would sell for much less than this made-up price.  If what I am saying is correct, it certainly sounds criminal.

there is always the danger of over valuation in a downturning housing market.

if you believe your property is over assessed then you simply challenge it.

the problem with views is that they have a much smaller amount of historical sales data points...the more data points the more accurate.

[d_goddard]

If you listen to the CNHT radio shows, or spend any time chatting with Ed Naile, or anyone on the CNHT Board, you'll lear fairly quickly about the clearly corrupt ways this ostensibly "market-based tax" has been perverted into a way to reward the friends and punish the enemies of town and city governments.

It really is a terrible loss that the CNHT radio shows are not podcasted anymore. They were a terrific resource. It would be HUGELY beneficial if anyone with ~45 minutes to spare per week, could hook up with Jane (aka CNHT on this Forum) and work with her to put the shows up as an RSS feed. She already has CDs created of each show, someone just needs to rip them, encode as MP3, host the files, and serve up an RSS.

It would be among the most powerful pro-Freedom things one could do for the smallest time and money investment (and no for various lame reasons I can't volunteer to do it myself, or I would already be doing it...)

[Fluff and Stuff]

the problem with views is that they have a much smaller amount of historical sales data points...the more data points the more accurate.

Actually, properties with views have about the same amount of historical sales data as properties without views.  Understanding what houses go for is pretty simple stuff.  You don't even need to go inside a house or anything to do it.  Heck, it only takes a class or town at a community college and then access to some data (and that is under the really messed up current system).

[Michael Fisher]

SHHHHHhhh... don't tell anyone about this method of defeating our protests, Dave. This is our tactic for defeating them. For example, when I handed out cookies to the anti-Free Stater protest at the Liberty Dinner, nobody could get a good picture of their protest without seeing a Free Stater handing out cookies to them. Being nice to them completely ruined their message.

When they bring out the batons and big guns to one of our nonviolent protests, that's when we'll really start making a difference. It won't necessarily feel good at first, but...

[Caleb]

Wow!  What a shock!  Frank Chodorov defending property taxes. 

"It may be theft. But it's our theft.  And it's ok because Locke's proviso says so."

[Russell Kanning]

You still respond to Bill Grennon? I have him on ignore.