It’s that time again. Your property taxes are due without penalty by January 31.
The riches are shuffling and refinancing their properties to pay their debt. The poors are budgeting for Ramen and cat food. City government is licking its chops.
Here’s a piece from the Wall Street Journal titled So Long, California? Goodbye, Texas? Taxpayers Decide Some States Aren’t Worth It (paywall):
The average property tax bill in the U.S. in 2018 was about $3,500, according to Attom Data Solutions, a real-estate data firm. But many residents in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and California had been deducting well over $10,000 a year. In Westchester County, N.Y., the average property-tax bill was more than $17,000, the highest in the country.
Zillow says the median home value in El Paso is $134,588. That yields a tax burden of about $4,000. That’s about 14% higher than the national average. The median household income in El Paso is $44,597, and the median household income for the U.S. is $61,423, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. El Paso’s median income is 73% of the national average.
We’re poorer, and we pay more in property taxes, and our City Government throws our money away on water parks and destination retail.
Maybe our City Fathers mean well, but they’re not that bright. Or maybe they’re corrupt, milking the taxpayer for all they can. Their motivations don’t really matter, because the results are the same.