by Greg Tlapek
From the 9/17/2013 Southeast Missourian article by Erin Ragan
Cape County Commissioners, Clint Tracy, Paul Koeper and Charles Herbst, raised the property tax levy from $0.038 per $100 assessed valuation to $0.0447 per $100 assessed valuation. That will amount to an increase in revenue for the county of 0.67 cents per $100 assessed valuation on a total assessment of $1,165,240,779 in the county. Hmmm...get out my pencil...that amounts to $78,071 in additional revenue for the county.
According to her article, only one person attended the public meeting held by the Commission before their vote on the tax increase. It's difficult to get people to turn out in opposition to something that is perceived to cost them very little. In this case, it appears there was no group or individual who perceived it to be in their interest to have the tax increased, either. As a matter of principle, I am against tax increases.
I was confused by the quote attributed to Clint Tracy, that raising the tax levy from $0.038 to $0.0447 could be "looked at as a 28-cent reduction." According to the article, the state has set a cap of $0.337 per $100 assessed valuation, which means our new rate of 4.47 cents is 29.13 cents below what the state allows.
Please comment if you like. There's much to know about property taxes. You can vote on whether you favor or oppose this tax increase, too. Look up and to the right.
ReplyDeleteWhy would any thinking individual vote to allow the government to take their hard earned money (taxes) to make more and more rules and regulations that restrict personal freedom? Go figure?
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