Seeking citizens for show
Contributed by: Anonymous
I think it be equally interesting to have citizens and elected officials appear on the same show.
Or even better , have a Town Hall type show with you and Tony moderating for a show that could be over an hour.
I be game I am sure Paul Meredith and Bryan Bain and one or two form the school board be interested.
The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.
Seeking Citizens for show
Authored by: L Schaffer on Tuesday, August 02 2005 @ 05:17 PM MDT
I am sure most of you were surprised as I was how much your tax assessment went up. I am afraid the next big surprised is yet to come, our tax bill come December. Our city manager stated that if the new assessment was last year, the mill rate would have been 22.17 per 1,000 of assessed value, with that my tax bill would have been 500.00 more. With the present elected people on our city, county, and school boards, we taxpayers don’t have a chance. One example is our city council approved on a 5-2 vote a resolution to borrow 31 million dollars a year the next 3 years, total of 93 million dollars if the state put a freeze on property taxes. Right now for every dollar that the city takes in, 26 cents goes to pay down our debt, this does not include the new water plant or the golf course, county or the school district. I wonder how many of our elderly citizens that are on fixed income will have to sell there homes or our low income citizens that can’t buy a home but have to rent can afford a large increase in rent payments. We taxpayers are now going to pay for all the buildings and land that the city bought and took off the tax rolls, all the tiff districts that were created. I am not against taxes, but I think all of our elected officials in office be it in the city, county, and school board start to show some restraint on how they spend our tax dollars.
Seeking Citizens for show
Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, August 03 2005 @ 04:54 PM MDT
I am not sure how this last comment pertains to the original post. But I am willing to bet anyone here dinner at the restaurant of the winner's choice that your property taxes will not increase in the next year more than they have the average of the last 10 years. Beyond being irresponsible, it would be political suicide for our politicians to vote for something like that. Let me know if you want the bet.
Chuck Hable
Seeking Citizens for show
Authored by: admin on Wednesday, August 03 2005 @ 05:18 PM MDT
Chuck, I can tell you categorically that my own taxes - as a result of the reassessment alone - are going to go up more than $500 for the year, using the figures provided by the city staff. And that is without figuring in road repairs being done to my street or any regular tax increases put in place by the city, county, school board or other taxing authorities. I am not alone in this dilemma.
The city has stated publicly that people in the older sections of town are going to see tax increases as a result of the reassessment. This is a fact. So I'll be happy to accept your bet and I hope others do too. It will be one less meal we'll have to try paying for. :)
In all seriousness, though, this is exactly why so many of our city's elderly who still own homes in the inner city are afraid they will soon no longer be able to afford them. Unfortunately far too many people in this community, including many of our elected officials, can't understand this. Nor do they seem to care.
- Cheryl Hentz
(We've already heard from a few citizens who want to come on the show. Still looking for others to join in.)
Seeking Citizens for show
Authored by: Michelle Monte on Thursday, August 04 2005 @ 07:21 AM MDT
As far as property tax increases, I'd take that bet as well. Our property value went up over $57,000 this year. This would nearly double our tax bill. Since we didn't pay nearly what the assessors office said our house was worth and couldn't sell it for anything close, and because nothing has been done to this property in years, we asked the assessor's office to visit us and see for themselves. We went to Realtors.com and found three properties like ours and noted their selling price and then drove through our neighborhood and noted the addresses of houses the same as ours and looked up their assessments and noted the values. This information and the assessor's visit to our home lowered our assessment $11,000. Our tax bill is still going to go up considerably, but hopefully we can scrape the money together before the end of the year. I would encourage people to call the assessors office before it is too late (I think August 8 is the deadline.) and ask the assessor to do a walk through. We were told that our house's value was based on available information in the computer system which was plugged into an assessment software program and the computer gave us a value. No one has been in our house in ten years.
I worry about those that do not think they can request a decrease. Anyone can and should if you feel your house has an inflated value. While it is great to see properties gaining in value, if that value is too high, no one can keep it or sell it. What purpose does that serve? Aren't property values supposed to reflect the financial stability and financial status of the community? I understand the increase in values creates an increase in revenue for the city, but what good is it if people, especially our eldest citizens, are taxed out of their homes. Isn't homelessness and poverty a bigger burden on taxpayers than realistic, not inflated, property values?
---
Thanks for reading.
Seeking Citizens for show
Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, August 04 2005 @ 08:08 AM MDT
Sorry....if I implied I was taking the whole city out to dinner, I wasn't! Cheryl was the first taker, she gets the bet if she wants it.
My understanding was that the assessment was required because some magic number fell below the 80% mark, and therefore needed to be redone. I got the feeling the mill rate would change to keep the overall dollar amount we pay on our taxes similar to what it was in years past. Perhaps I was wrong. Choose your restaurant, Cheryl, but don't start smackin' your chops just yet! If I win- Kodiak Jacks. I am still holding out hope.
And, no...you can't smoke.
Chuck Hable
I think it be equally interesting to have citizens and elected officials appear on the same show.
Or even better , have a Town Hall type show with you and Tony moderating for a show that could be over an hour.
I be game I am sure Paul Meredith and Bryan Bain and one or two form the school board be interested.
The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.
Seeking Citizens for show
Authored by: L Schaffer on Tuesday, August 02 2005 @ 05:17 PM MDT
I am sure most of you were surprised as I was how much your tax assessment went up. I am afraid the next big surprised is yet to come, our tax bill come December. Our city manager stated that if the new assessment was last year, the mill rate would have been 22.17 per 1,000 of assessed value, with that my tax bill would have been 500.00 more. With the present elected people on our city, county, and school boards, we taxpayers don’t have a chance. One example is our city council approved on a 5-2 vote a resolution to borrow 31 million dollars a year the next 3 years, total of 93 million dollars if the state put a freeze on property taxes. Right now for every dollar that the city takes in, 26 cents goes to pay down our debt, this does not include the new water plant or the golf course, county or the school district. I wonder how many of our elderly citizens that are on fixed income will have to sell there homes or our low income citizens that can’t buy a home but have to rent can afford a large increase in rent payments. We taxpayers are now going to pay for all the buildings and land that the city bought and took off the tax rolls, all the tiff districts that were created. I am not against taxes, but I think all of our elected officials in office be it in the city, county, and school board start to show some restraint on how they spend our tax dollars.
Seeking Citizens for show
Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, August 03 2005 @ 04:54 PM MDT
I am not sure how this last comment pertains to the original post. But I am willing to bet anyone here dinner at the restaurant of the winner's choice that your property taxes will not increase in the next year more than they have the average of the last 10 years. Beyond being irresponsible, it would be political suicide for our politicians to vote for something like that. Let me know if you want the bet.
Chuck Hable
Seeking Citizens for show
Authored by: admin on Wednesday, August 03 2005 @ 05:18 PM MDT
Chuck, I can tell you categorically that my own taxes - as a result of the reassessment alone - are going to go up more than $500 for the year, using the figures provided by the city staff. And that is without figuring in road repairs being done to my street or any regular tax increases put in place by the city, county, school board or other taxing authorities. I am not alone in this dilemma.
The city has stated publicly that people in the older sections of town are going to see tax increases as a result of the reassessment. This is a fact. So I'll be happy to accept your bet and I hope others do too. It will be one less meal we'll have to try paying for. :)
In all seriousness, though, this is exactly why so many of our city's elderly who still own homes in the inner city are afraid they will soon no longer be able to afford them. Unfortunately far too many people in this community, including many of our elected officials, can't understand this. Nor do they seem to care.
- Cheryl Hentz
(We've already heard from a few citizens who want to come on the show. Still looking for others to join in.)
Seeking Citizens for show
Authored by: Michelle Monte on Thursday, August 04 2005 @ 07:21 AM MDT
As far as property tax increases, I'd take that bet as well. Our property value went up over $57,000 this year. This would nearly double our tax bill. Since we didn't pay nearly what the assessors office said our house was worth and couldn't sell it for anything close, and because nothing has been done to this property in years, we asked the assessor's office to visit us and see for themselves. We went to Realtors.com and found three properties like ours and noted their selling price and then drove through our neighborhood and noted the addresses of houses the same as ours and looked up their assessments and noted the values. This information and the assessor's visit to our home lowered our assessment $11,000. Our tax bill is still going to go up considerably, but hopefully we can scrape the money together before the end of the year. I would encourage people to call the assessors office before it is too late (I think August 8 is the deadline.) and ask the assessor to do a walk through. We were told that our house's value was based on available information in the computer system which was plugged into an assessment software program and the computer gave us a value. No one has been in our house in ten years.
I worry about those that do not think they can request a decrease. Anyone can and should if you feel your house has an inflated value. While it is great to see properties gaining in value, if that value is too high, no one can keep it or sell it. What purpose does that serve? Aren't property values supposed to reflect the financial stability and financial status of the community? I understand the increase in values creates an increase in revenue for the city, but what good is it if people, especially our eldest citizens, are taxed out of their homes. Isn't homelessness and poverty a bigger burden on taxpayers than realistic, not inflated, property values?
---
Thanks for reading.
Seeking Citizens for show
Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, August 04 2005 @ 08:08 AM MDT
Sorry....if I implied I was taking the whole city out to dinner, I wasn't! Cheryl was the first taker, she gets the bet if she wants it.
My understanding was that the assessment was required because some magic number fell below the 80% mark, and therefore needed to be redone. I got the feeling the mill rate would change to keep the overall dollar amount we pay on our taxes similar to what it was in years past. Perhaps I was wrong. Choose your restaurant, Cheryl, but don't start smackin' your chops just yet! If I win- Kodiak Jacks. I am still holding out hope.
And, no...you can't smoke.
Chuck Hable
posted by Cheryl Hentz at 1:35 PM
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