Property taxes have sparked heated debate for decades. Given the class warfare element inherent in the tax itself, it’s no surprise. If you don’t own real estate, you probably love property taxes because, well, the kinds of taxes you don’t pay are the best taxes of all. But if you do own real estate, you know firsthand what a pain in the ass they can be.
Imagine owning a home for decades and paying off your mortgage only to watch your local city council or county commission (or both!) continually raise your property taxes to the point that you’re paying as much as or more than your mortgage once was. You mistakenly thought your home was yours, but it was a naive dream. No, instead of enjoying financial freedom in your retirement years, you now get to rent your home in perpetuity from the government. And the consequence of not paying your ‘rent’ is essentially the same as that faced by any other renter: eviction. Tragic tales of elderly people being forced out of their homes for nonpayment of property taxes are far too common and provide fodder for those who want to eliminate property taxes.
Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is perhaps the most prominent politician in that camp. An out-of-the-box thinker who even the strongest critics of his failed primary run against President Donald Trump largely give credit for doing an incredible job running the state, DeSantis has long advocated for the abolition of property taxes, calling them “rent to the government.”
"You should own your property free and clear,” he said at a press conference last week, responding to a question about the issue. “I think to say that someone who has been in their house for 35 years just has to keep ponying up money; you don’t own your home if that’s the case … If I go to Best Buy and buy a flatscreen TV and put it on the wall, I have to pay a sales tax on it, but I don’t keep paying taxes on it every year. If you’re going to tax something, you tax it at the transaction and then let people actually enjoy their private property free and clear of the government.”
Recommended
The Florida governor went on to point out the fact that people “don’t have a choice” whether or not to pay property taxes, and they continually have to pay them year after year, even though incomes are stagnant and home prices are at record highs and rising. He contrasted this with consumption taxes, which he argues the founding fathers felt were one of the best forms of “indirect” taxation. People can choose whether or not to consume and pay the tax, and there is also a form of protection because if they get too high, “you kill the golden goose.”
Property taxes do have defenders, though, and their arguments can’t be dismissed out of hand. My former Daily Caller colleague Scott Greer, quoting my post on the topic, called the elimination of property taxes “another form of wealth redistribution to boomers at the expense of local infrastructure and public services.”
“Property taxes are getting out of hand in a few states, but axing them entirely to further reward boomers is short-sighted,” he wrote. Greer’s argument is based on some degree of class warfare, albeit specifically generational in this case, but it’s not crazy. Boomers, while just 20% of the population, nevertheless hold more than 50% of U.S. household wealth. And the vast majority, almost four out of five, own their own home. When you compare that to Gen Z’s abysmal home ownership rate of around one in four, along with the fact that wages are stagnant and real estate prices are absolutely insane, you can understand where the animosity brews.
When homeowners are the ones primarily benefiting from services like fire protection, police, zoning, code enforcement, and even building and maintaining the infrastructure that prevents flooding, it does make sense that they should foot the majority of the bill. But where is the line between paying their fair share and becoming de facto government tenants? Can we perhaps come up with a system where old ladies with fixed incomes and paid off homes don’t end up on the street because they can’t afford their constantly increasing property taxes?
There are plenty of options, and it will take out-of-the-box thinking for local and state leaders to figure them out. Some combination of sales taxes and user fees could be an option, but they are considered regressive, meaning they hit the poor hardest. Tiered income taxes, where the rich pay a higher percentage and the poor, up to a certain income amount, pay nothing, are probably the fairest way to fund state and local governments, but they are opposed by many if not most conservatives. Estate taxes and target corporate taxes face the same uphill climb.
Thankfully, the federalist system given to us by our founders, hopefully, will eventually result in some state or locality using a method that everyone loves, or at least finds fair. Likely, this will be some combination of alternative taxes and lowered property taxes with homestead caps when homeowners reach a certain age. Hey, at least these kinds of taxes are actually going toward something real that we all benefit from, as opposed to what we all must feed into the mammoth black hole that is the federal government.
Editor’s Note: The Schumer Shutdown is here. Rather than put the American people first, Chuck Schumer and the radical Democrats forced a government shutdown for healthcare for illegals. They own this.
Help us continue to report the truth about the Schumer Shutdown. Use promo code POTUS47 to get 74% off your VIP membership.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member