"John Gaquin" wrote in message
...

"bb" wrote in message

Is it really fair that the person who buys the house next door to me
pays 300% of the taxes I pay, and receives the same services for it?

How is this happening? Does your area not assess at market?

John,
The "Save Our Homes" act puts a cap on the amount our property taxes can
increase each year...no matter what the house assesses for. The cap only
applies until you sell the house. So, it's possible for bb to pay $1000/yr.
on a house he's been in for 15 years, and his neighbor pays $3000/yr because
he just moved in .

If you already live down here, own your house, and don't plan on moving,
your taxes won't increase very much. If you're planning on retiring down
here, you pay the tax rate based on today's appraised value of the house.
It's a type of "impact fee" to help offset the population boom we're
experiencing.

The only thing I'd like to see changed, is for people that are already
"Homesteaded" (ie--live down here full time) to be able to carry the cap
from one house to the next. Ideally, then it would only affect new people
coming here...since they're the ones driving the price of housing so high in
the first place...and they're the ones putting an extra burden on our roads,
water supply, schools, and other public facilities.