A Usenet persona calling itself BCITORGB wrote:

KMAN:
===============
It would seem so. Property owners pay property taxes. Landlords are
property
owners that must cover the cost of their property taxes through the
rents
they charge to tenants. Tenants pay rent which includes the portion of
revenues the landlord must pay in property taxes. If the renters aren't
paying their "fair share" that can only be the case if landlords are
not
paying sufficient taxes, which is clearly not the problem or
responsibility
of the renters.
=================

Brilliant, Holmes! I couldn't have said it better myself.

What happened to your socialistic, egalitarian "share the pain" zeal?

Or do you just like the idea of sticking it to landowners because they are
somehow immoral for presuming to own something you can't afford?

That's not very consistent.
--
Regards,
Scott Weiser

"I love the Internet, I no longer have to depend on
friends, family and co-workers, I can annoy people WORLDWIDE!" TM

© 2005 Scott Weiser

Scott:
=============
What happened to your socialistic, egalitarian "share the pain" zeal?

Or do you just like the idea of sticking it to landowners because they
are
somehow immoral for presuming to own something you can't afford?

That's not very consistent.
===============

Who said anything about "sticking it to the landowners"? As KMAN
pointed out, the landlord is taxed, and we can rest assured he'll
approtion his tax bill to all his tenants so they'll "share" the tax
burden.

As to property taxes being an appropriate means of funding education,
I've never said that. That happens to be the way much of it is funded,
but I'll agree with you, that doesn't make it right or the correct way
to do it. Income tax works for me just as well (better!).

frtzw906

A Usenet persona calling itself BCITORGB wrote:

Scott:
=============
What happened to your socialistic, egalitarian "share the pain" zeal?

Or do you just like the idea of sticking it to landowners because they
are
somehow immoral for presuming to own something you can't afford?

That's not very consistent.
===============

Who said anything about "sticking it to the landowners"? As KMAN
pointed out, the landlord is taxed, and we can rest assured he'll
approtion his tax bill to all his tenants so they'll "share" the tax
burden.

Not equally. If landlord A pays Y in property taxes, and has 100 tenants,
each tenant will pay Y/100 towards public schools. Now, if property owner B
pays 1/2Y on his private residence, where he has no tenants and generates no
income, he is paying 50 times more than each of the tenants of A. How is it
fair that each of the 100 tenants of A get to pay 1/50th of what B pays for
public schools?


As to property taxes being an appropriate means of funding education,
I've never said that. That happens to be the way much of it is funded,
but I'll agree with you, that doesn't make it right or the correct way
to do it. Income tax works for me just as well (better!).

That's all I'm saying.

--
Regards,
Scott Weiser

"I love the Internet, I no longer have to depend on
friends, family and co-workers, I can annoy people WORLDWIDE!" TM

© 2005 Scott Weiser

Scott:
============
As to property taxes being an appropriate means of funding education,
I've never said that. That happens to be the way much of it is
funded,
but I'll agree with you, that doesn't make it right or the correct
way
to do it. Income tax works for me just as well (better!).

That's all I'm saying.
=================

And I've never said otherwise, except to disspell the notion that
tenants pay "no" tax toward schools. Property taxes are in more than a
few ways, very "odd" taxes. For example, here, where they're based on
assessed market value, they penalize those who take care of and
maintain their property. And, as you say Scott, they are a poor
reflection of actual usage of the services they're supposed to pay for
(sewage, water, garbage collection, or whatever). For many of these
things, I'm over on your side Scott. Put a meter on my water (which my
municipality is doing this summer), charge me per garbage can, etc. On
these things, I'm very much a "user pay" advocate (including, if you'll
recall and earler thread, agriculture, which you seem to want to
support). [Aside: all bets are off if the city tries to sell the water
reservoirs and distribution rights to private, for-profit, firms --
water belongs to the PEOPLE.]

frtzw906

A Usenet persona calling itself BCITORGB wrote:

Scott:
============
As to property taxes being an appropriate means of funding education,
I've never said that. That happens to be the way much of it is
funded,
but I'll agree with you, that doesn't make it right or the correct
way
to do it. Income tax works for me just as well (better!).

That's all I'm saying.
=================

And I've never said otherwise, except to disspell the notion that
tenants pay "no" tax toward schools. Property taxes are in more than a
few ways, very "odd" taxes. For example, here, where they're based on
assessed market value, they penalize those who take care of and
maintain their property. And, as you say Scott, they are a poor
reflection of actual usage of the services they're supposed to pay for
(sewage, water, garbage collection, or whatever). For many of these
things, I'm over on your side Scott. Put a meter on my water (which my
municipality is doing this summer), charge me per garbage can, etc. On
these things, I'm very much a "user pay" advocate (including, if you'll
recall and earler thread, agriculture, which you seem to want to
support).

Why not for health care and schools too?

[Aside: all bets are off if the city tries to sell the water
reservoirs and distribution rights to private, for-profit, firms --
water belongs to the PEOPLE.]

Well, down here, water belongs to whomever first diverts it and puts it to
beneficial use. Which is why, BTW, Colorado doesn't have any navigable
waterways for you to kayak on. (Just thought I'd bring the discussion back
to paddling for a moment.)
--
Regards,
Scott Weiser

"I love the Internet, I no longer have to depend on
friends, family and co-workers, I can annoy people WORLDWIDE!" TM

© 2005 Scott Weiser