Forum Post: Transparency on Property Taxes
Posted 13 years ago on Oct. 11, 2011, 1:17 p.m. EST by Markmad
(323)
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When I do pay my property taxes the check is made out to some Clerk instead of to the treasury department. Can someone explain to me why my money doesn’t go to the treasury as it should? To whom are we paying taxes if not to the Treasury of the United States?
Property taxes generally support town, city, or in some states country government.
For example, where I live, property taxes are paid to the town. They pay for schools, police, fire department, the building inspector, and other town service and functions.
In some states, these and other services are done by the county instead of the town or state government.
Yes, I did see that in my 2012 Notice of Proposed Property Taxes and Proposed Non-Ad Valorem Assessments and they fairly summarize the distribution around the county. But I’m interest in the full disclosure of the total amount collated. Thanks anyway.
Property taxes are local not Federal.
Do you know where the money goes?
You should contact your county Treasurer or Controller to find out how the taxes are distributed in your locality.
Well, I did call my property appraiser’s office but the information is local, I’m interest in finding out the grand total amount collected, locally, county and statewide. That information somehow seems to be restricted from the public.
It's not. It's public information and should be available from whoever runs the town, county, whatever, e.g., town council, mayor's office, county government, etc. Any restriction likely is more that you can't find it or that your local government is incompetent and simply doesn't have an easy way for you to access it.
Unless the state complies the data in some way, then you'd have to get it locality-by-locality and aggregate it yourself.
You’re probably right; some cities are better equipped than others. I may have to earn this one. Thank you.
It should be available with a freedom of information request. Try your township supervisor and see if they can help you. Contact the local pres as they may have some inroads as well.
Good luck.
Yep, I'll do that, thanks
You don't need a freedom of info request. Go to the county assessors office. They can tell you total levy.
You can and should do the same thing at your local school board. I can promise you this, your going to be really pissed off when you see how it works. Wall Street ain't shit compared to what your local govt and school board are doing to us. They spend our money with no responsibility at all.
School taxes for instance is something we could all fix but nobody ever votes. The older folks who no longer have kids living at home always vote against the budget. People with kids always for it. When the school budgets fail, the school system fucks with the people paying the taxes first!. They cut the things we need like after school buses. They don;t think to go form 3 teachers per class to 2. Or renegotiate with the unions. Or merge two districts together to reduce costs. No way,
That’s typical!
One interesting fact about my property is that even dough the value of the property depreciated considerably this year, property taxes in contrast has increased substantially.
You have the right to grieve your taxes every year. Depending on where you live the policy time of year can be different.
There companies that do this work for you. If you do not have any real estate experience and it sounds like you don;t they are well worth what they charge. They usually will only collect a fee if they reduce your taxes. You pay them a percentage of what they save you.
In many counties, the first time you submit to the county the reject it just to try and get you out of the way. So you probably will have to apply twice.
You will have to prove to the assessor that you are being over taxed. You do this by showing other properties that are paying less that are similar to yours.
Awesome! I’ll look into that type of service. Thanks for the hint.