Decades after a famous revolt by California homeowners led to the relief provided by Proposition 13, taxpayers acting to resist sky-high property taxes are making waves throughout the country.
Just a few of the many examples reported by The Epoch Times:
Ohio. The elderly couple who paid off the mortgage on their home long ago but cannot now afford the property taxes is one reason that people are signing a statewide petition to eliminate local property taxes. It will take about 413,000 signatures, collected by a July 1, 2026 deadline, for the measure to reach the November ballot.
Florida and Texas. Legislators in Florida and Texas hope to limit the “flexibility” that local governments enjoy in how they raise revenue.
Minnesota and North Dakota. Lawmakers are pushing a cap on property tax increases tied to inflation and population growth. Voters would have to agree to any change in the cap. Recent school-board driven increases of 8 or 9 percent would be limited to 3 or 4 percent in typical scenarios.
Montana. Lawmakers want a two-percent limit on tax hikes for “local government spending but not for schools, which consume about 55 percent of property tax revenues.” A fatal flaw? Public schools are better at bloating costs than improving education.
The author observes that 46 states and D.C. already impose some sort oflimits on local property tax increases — though “their designs and restrictiveness differ widely,” adds the Tax Foundation.
Let’s improve those designs and increase the restrictiveness ASAP.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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3 replies on “The New Property-Tax Revolts”
In practice, general price-inflations have always been a consequence of government expansions of the money supply. Very proper amendments to the various constitutions of the constituent states and federal government would forbid inflation-adjustment of taxes and of compensation for state employees.
I haven’t seen any limits on increases here in New Jersey. Mine gone up more than thirty percent in the last two years. Meanwhile ‘inflation’ was less than four percent.
Whatever happened to allodial title?