Everyone wants to reduce property taxes. Unfortunately, the suggested “solution” is often replacing property taxes with some other tax, essentially taking from a different pocket, hopefully of someone else’s pants. There are certainly arguments that other funding sources are “fairer” or better for other reasons. That’s not really the point of this post.
I am worried that if we adopted a plan to reduce property taxes, say by doubling or tripling the income tax to fund all schools, the other levels of government that depend upon the property tax would all too soon pick up the slack. Therefore, any significant structural change must include limits on spending by these other governments.
Jay Bohn
February 28, 2022