12.28.2007 3:44 pm
Rally against high property taxes Saturday morning in Union
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
A protest rally against high property taxes and sharp jumps in assessments will be at 10 a.m. Saturday in downtown Union.
The event will start across from White Rose Cafe, 208 East Main Street. Participants will march to the southeast lawn of the county’s Old Courthouse.
The event includes a ceremony to commemorate 234th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party in December 1773. Several people from groups seeking property tax relief will speak.
Taxpayers in Franklin County, a tax-relief group, sponsors the rally.
Organizers urge participants to display homemade signs and to sign a petition to state and Franklin County officials voicing their concerns.
Both the assessed value and the taxes I owed went up 33%. They are both absurd. I will be voting everyone out of office.
#6, therein lies the problem.
Assessors for YEARS have been under-assessing property values, because they’re elected officials and don’t want to upset the electorate. When they start looking at real values of property transactions in the area (like with Certificate of Value), they have no choice but to raise those assessments.
Property values go up, it’s just the way it is. Under the “Rule of 12,” if something goes up at 6%, it will double in value in 12 years. The reciprocal is also true.
Teresa, isn’t it fair to assume your home value has increased by 6% a year for the past 14 years? Considering it’s been 14 years, it would actually only have to increase in value by less than 5.25%.
It really works that way, folks. Don’t blame the assessor. Your home’s value means nothing to you if you’re not selling or refinancing, but everyone really hates to see it go up for tax purposes!
Number 6 hit the nail right on the head. I lived in a school district a couple years ago that claimed poverty and there would be staff and activity cuts. The teachers spent Saturday mornings at major intersections with signs pleading for a tax increase. It passed.
Then people got their reassessments at about the same time. My taxes went from 1500 in 03 to 2200 in 05 or 46% in the two years I was there.
Fast forward to today and the same school district is buying new property, adding activities, and staff have had nice raises with administrators getting big time raises.
Sounds familiar, Amazed …
Did the school board switch hands? In the Francis Howell School District, a “conservative” majority was put in place, and has increased the budget by $42 million in four years. All this after they campaigned against the very money that they’re now spending.
I understand the desire of districts to wean themselves from dependency upon state appropriations — especially on the heels of Holden. But this is lunacy at its best!
Jim(R) forgot to mention that the school board he was a part in FHSD that increased the taxes so greatly also left behind an automatic budget increase by agreements that were signed prior to their being ousted.
His example is a good one though in showing that people can make significant changes in school boards if they pay attention and want to do so. Hopefully more taxpayers will get engaged and do the same.