Taxed to death

The big upset right now in Luzerne County where I live is new real estate assessments. Most everyone is going to have to pay a lot more taxes. What I can't understand is that they haven't done a reassessment since the 60s! How have they possibly gotten along without increasing people's taxes for forty years?

The hardest hit are the folks who live on Harvey's Lake. Dad remembers going there when it was a resort and anyone could go and enjoy it. People had simple cabins and would go stay there in the hot summer months and enjoy the water. And it is really beautiful up there. But now it's not public at all. Almost all the lakefront is private and you have to join clubs to get access. And the value of the cabins there has skyrocketed. People are now buying the cabins to pull them down and put in huge houses to live in year-round. So in the paper today, a family's revealed that their assessment was raised from about 80,000 to 875,000. Their taxes are expected to go up from 1500 dollars to more than 11,000 dollars. Good grief! Granted that their house is now worth a whole lot more money (not that much more though), but it's not like that money is in their pocket. Also, there's no protection for folks on fixed incomes. If I remember aright, in Denton, your school taxes (and maybe county taxes too) were frozen after you reached 65. So retired folk here are looking at having to sell their property in a really bad market.

Our real estate taxes are reasonable after the new assessment. But this is also land of state income tax, county income tax and, in some cases, city income tax. We avoided the city taxes by not living in Wilkes-Barre or Scranton. And they can't understand why people don't want to live in those cities??? And they take county taxes out of his paycheck based on where he works, not where he lives. So he has to guess if he's paying the right amount. We might have a big extra chunk to pay at the end of the year.

So if you're from a land where the taxes go up a little bit each year, count yourself fortunate. I never thought it was a blessing. But it's obviously better to have early warning that your property is worth so much that you can't afford the taxes. You have time to sell in a good market if you need to and take the profit and run off somewhere else where the real estate is cheaper. And if you live in a state income tax-free zone, be extremely grateful.

I got a letter from a dear friend today from Denton. It's nice to hear that her family is doing so well. I was surprised and happy that she reads my blog! That's awesome. My whole point was to entertain a little and keep folks from far away up to date on our lives. I'm glad to see it's working.