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News
Adoptive family seeks award for bomb dog that went to war
News Published: Wed, June 19, 2013
Ruby and Wade Ridpath with their combat veteran dog, Carlos, who served five years as an explosive-detecting dog in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Ridpaths nominated Carlos for the American Humane Association Hero Dog Awards in the military dog category. by Erin Prater erin.prater@gazette.com – “Bring him home.” As Ruby Ridpath typed those words into an [...]
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- Bernie Herpin may face Sen. John Morse in recall, if he gets signatures
- FIRE NOTEBOOK: Reception canceled for Waldo exhibit
- Red flag fire warning for El Paso County, dry conditions all week
- Man in custody after traffic stop
- UPDATES: New areas to open temporarily Wednesday morning to Black Forest fire residents
Life
Cheyenne Mountain Zoo’s ‘gentlest giraffe’ dies at age 32
Life Published: Tue, June 18, 2013
Courtesy of the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo The Gazette – The most recognizable giraffe at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, known for her unique, nearly all-white coloring, died Tuesday morning due to complications of old age. Becky, a 32-year-old reticulated giraffe, had been on a “quality of life watch” for about a year and a half, the [...]
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A&E
DOG DAYS OF SUMMER: The dogs who went Hollywood
Arts & Entertainment Published: Tue, June 18, 2013
by t.d. mobley-martinez tracy@coloradosprings.com – I love dogs. And I’m not alone. Which is probably why they have found themselves pictured or portrayed since men began to walk upright. Cave paintings and Egyptian murals. Those “Blue Dog” paintings. Tin Tin’s Snowy, L. Frank Baum’s Toto in “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,” Astro, Scooby Doo and [...]
Sports
Sky Sox use Chris Volstad’s pitching, solid defense to top Tacoma 4-1
Sports Published: Tue, June 18, 2013
by JOE PAISLEY joe.paisley@gazette.com – Colorado Springs starter Chris Volstad got into a rhythm and the Sky Sox defense came up with three big double plays to down Tacoma 4-1 Tuesday night. The first two double plays ended Rainier scoring threats in the second and seventh innings and the final, a line drive grab by [...]
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- Former Rockie Esmil Rogers shuts down former team in 8-3 Toronto victory
- Northern Colorado football camp entry fees given to Red Cross after fire
- Subhead
- KLEE: With limited roster, CSU football must rely on flexibility of coaches
- McBride and Paulsen can’t carry Colorado Springs Sky Sox to victory in 12-7 loss to Las Vegas
Business
New hires, promotions & honors
Business Published: Wed, June 19, 2013
The Gazette – Tom Reiter has been named chief executive officer and president of Rocky Mountain Health Care Services, which provides a continuum of services to people who are elderly, blind, brain injured, disabled or living with diabetes or AIDS. Reiter will start July 1. He has more than 23 years experience in health-care organizations, [...]
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Military
Army show at home base brings a case of nerves for Fort Carson soldier
Military Published: Mon, June 10, 2013
In The Soldier Show, the stars of the show are not only performers, but soldiers. The Soldier Show travels the world to entertain our soldiers and their families. The show came to Ft. Carson on Thursday, May 30, 2013. (Jerilee Bennett, The Gazette) by erin prater erin.prater@gazette.com – hen the Army’s “Soldier Show” rolled into [...]
sell properties…
[...]Property tax freedom – The Broadside : Colorado Springs Gazette, CO[...]…
I realize your post is a bit old now, but I just found and think it is still more than relevant. I could not agree more that a lump sum, or some timeframe of property tax stopping point is the way to go. The amount of money the government would lose in the long run could be easily offset by raising the sales tax a bit as Jim Metheny suggests. That way we could still own our homes, and only get stuck with taxes when we went out to purchase something.
Then again, they could always legalize drugs like Holland did a little while ago and save themselves plenty enough money to get rid of property taxes!
Seth,
Hook me up! How do I do this “Lump-sum” payment?
I want to own my property once it is “paid” for.
It really ticks me off that one will never “own” what is truly his.
I don’t want to pay for this place until the day I die, provided
I am given more years on this planet.
Thanks for sharing this gem.
Well, Susan, the only way I can hook you up is to recommend that you approach your state representatives with the plan and start working towards getting a bill enacted. As it stands now, we’re all renting from the government and will be doing so pretty much forever. I encourage you to start a grassroots movement to draft and submit such a bill. If you get anything going, please let me know and I’ll make note of it here.
It sounds good to say “You should be able to own your home, and go broke and still have a place to live.” but it won’t work in the real world. You still need some essential community services and those have to be paid for by the residents.
You might say you don’t want any services, but over time our society has agreed everyone should have some basic services. Mainly law enforcement, roads, and education. We didn’t have the opportunity to vote on these decisions, but our ancestors did, and now we live with their decisions. We could start an effort to change this, but I doubt we would get a majority of the people to agree.
We have many examples of people forming voluntary governments to provide desired services. They are the Home Owners Associations (HOA), which are all around us. They aren’t called governments, but they are. They elect leaders to guide the organization and they have a set of rules (laws). They require each resident to pay HOA dues. These dues aren’t called property tax, but they are. The HOA has the legal authority to collect the dues and to take appropriate action if a resident refuses to pay. This is all voluntary.
You say “If towns want to offer services, then they can charge for said services through means other than threats of violence and extortion.” Towns don’t want to provide services. Residents want services from towns. Towns charge for services through a set of laws voluntarily established by the residents. Saying property taxes are extortion is particularly wrong in Colorado. We are fortunate to have the protection of TABOR which gives us the right to vote on our property taxes. As individuals we may not agree with a decision of the majority, but that doesn’t make it extortion. The so called “threat of violence” is actually the government providing a service to enforce the laws of our community. This is the service that protects us from muggers, drunk drivers, loan scammers, etc. It also protects us from people who decide to not pay their share of property taxes.
We have a social safety net to help those who go broke and still need a place to live. Whether it is adequate can be argued. The concept that you can go broke and still have a place to live is the same as President Obama’s goal of redistributing the wealth. It means the productive in a community pay for the services of the non-productive.
The HOA’s are a good microcosm to look at what will happen if President Obama’s goals go too far. If an HOA does not have the authority to collect dues (property tax) from all residents, the dues will go up on the productive. As the number of non-productive goes up the productive will leave. They will leave quickly because they see the handwriting on the wall. They know their property values will go down as their community becomes undesirable.
I am not suggesting large numbers of productive people are about to leave the country. But they will take actions to protect the results of their labor. How far this resistance goes depends on how far President Obama pushes it.
Are you serious? Property taxes hurt real people. They make people homeless. You should be able to own your home, and go broke and still have a place to live. If towns want to offer services, then they can charge for said services through means other than threats of violence and extortion. Aside towns should not offer these services, communities should get together and charter them voluntarily instead of using government and its threat of force. Your point of view lacks both morals and concern for the welfare of people.
Seth, Your paid up property tax proposal is interesting, but does not address many possibilities.
You base the cost of paying the lifetime tax on predicted remaining life span, taken from a standard actuarial table (for both spouses). The problem is what happens if you move for reasons other than death. There are many other reasons people move, some voluntary, some involuntary.
Would the house be tax free to the next owner until you died? If so that value could be estimated and included in the sale price. You would be offering the next owner a gamble on how long you are going to live. An interesting twist on housing values.
Would you get a rebate from the taxing authority? How to ever figure that out?
Would you just loose your upfront payment as the cost of moving? Not attractive to be locked into a house.
What if the house burned down?
I think the concept is good, but not workable. So how about this?
You pay an extra year of tax now and the government taxes you at 80% of your current tax for as long as you own the house. You have a guaranteed break even in five years and a fixed tax amount for as long as you own the house. Adjust the percent to reach an agreeable balance between owners and taxers. This makes it the gamble between the owner and taxer which it is.
When I graduated from college the alumni association offered a life time membership for $500 vs paying $25 per year. For some reason I paid the $500. Now the membership is several hundred dollars per year. I won the gamble, even considering inflation. The difference is that there wasn’t much chance I was going to move to another alumni association.
I seriously disagree with you folks. Property taxes are the price you pay for the services provided by various government agencies. Roads, police, fire protection, schools, etc.
Saying you should own a home tax free implies you think you do not use or want any of the services of the community. Not likely.
It is easy to pick on school taxes as unfair. Some say the parents should pay. In this country we have recognized that the young parents of young children are the least able to afford school costs, so we have spread the costs across generations. My parents helped pay for my kids educations and I help pay for my grand kids education. It is not perfect, but it’s pretty good. It benefits me to have educated kids in my neighborhood.
Everyone pays property taxes, except those living under bridges. Every renter pays, they just don’t know how much.
Sales taxes have some problems. A main one is that consumers are mobile and often pay their sales tax outside of the area providing their services. Colorado Springs government often complains about big box stores outside of the city limits. Property is firmly rooted to the community providing the services.
More tax on businesses and corporations is meaningless. They don’t pay taxes, just collect them. They do need educated workers and that is a service our community provides to them. The businesses and corporations to be saluted are those who make charitable contributions to our schools from their profits. But you can’t pass tax laws to force charitable contributions.
A problem with property tax is the impact on retired people with fixed incomes. When my grandmother died she was paying a lot more in property tax each year than she originally paid for the house. Living in Santa Monica, CA was part of the problem. Perhaps she also just lived too long. Colorado actually recognized this problem and created an old folks property tax deduction. But now they have decided the state needs the money more than the old folks. Screw those old folks.
There is no perfect solution to taxes. You can tinker with the balance of various taxes, and you should. Taxes are not immoral. However, the level of taxation and how our government leaders use it may be.
Here in Arkansas we actually attempted during three separate election cycles to abolish the property tax and replace it with a two cent increase in sales tax. A sufficient number of signatures was garnered each time to place it on the ballot, but state judges always found a reason not to allow it to come to a vote. The last reason was that the wording on the ballot would be too difficult for voters to understand. I kid you not! Two fellows in Fort Smith led the effort to gather signatures, and I wrote numerous letters to the editor that appeared in every newspaper in the state to provide a philosophical/moral basis for the measure. Governor Huckabee did everything he could to kill the movement and ultimately just wore out everyone on our side. Although Huckabee seems to sing a different tune now, when governor he never saw a tax he didn’t like and raised them several times.
Keep up the good fight for freedom.
Jim,
I don’t disagree with you at all about property tax. Both property and use/ownership taxes are fundamentally immoral because they presume to tax what you already own, not a transaction or consumption. I’m all for sales and in some cases value-added taxes.
Moreover, property taxes levy a disproportionate burden on property owners to fund things like schools that everyone benefits from. In my view, the appropriate funding source for schools is a) parents, who should be paying something for their children’s education, since they created the economic burden, and b) business and corporations, who have the most to gain financially from an educated workforce.
However, I wrote predicated on the assumption that property tax is not going to go away any time soon, and I’d like to find a way to at least free-hold my own home.
It’s a practical step that we could take that might actually have a chance at passage in the legislature because it does not diminish tax revenues.
Seth,
We don’t often disagree, but I can’t agree with you on the property tax issue. I certainly don’t think that it’s a “necessary evil.” Perhaps no tax is consistent with liberty, but the property tax stands apart as the most inimical to it.
First, you pay taxes on your income. With what the government leaves you, you buy a home. Your purchase price reimburses the builder for all the taxes he’s paid on the home’s components. Now you pay a property tax on the home, not once, but every year you “own” it. Forever. You come to believe that the home is yours, but think again. Just try avoiding property tax and see who really owns it. If the hallmark of capitalism is the private ownership of property, the property tax belies the belief that ours is a capitalistic economy. The tax represents a permanent lien on anything to which it applies.
Many people, I believe, have no idea how much they pay in property taxes. It’s hidden in their rent or home mortgage payments. Merchants also include it in the cost of products the consumer buys.
Revenues generated by property taxes could be equaled by increasing sales taxes by about two cents at the time of any purchase. If this happened we could truly say that we owned our homes, automobiles, furniture, jewelry, and any other items that are now subject to the tax.
In other words, we could honestly say that we enjoyed private ownership of property.