Mitch Vexler: "Real Estate Taxes Have Become a Ponzi Scheme of Biblical Proportions"

:rofl:

Edit: I’m laughing because I’m a fellow ā€˜Masshole’ who considers moving to NH. Good one, @thc0655! I know many ā€˜blue side’ people who already live in NH by this point. Some of them just continue on while others not so much.

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"Another constitutional argument sometimes raised against property taxes involves the Fifth Amendment’s Takings Clause, which states that private property shall not be taken for public use without just compensation. The argument posits that forcing an owner to pay taxes on their property is equivalent to the government taking a portion of that property’s value each year. This line of reasoning attempts to frame property taxation as a form of eminent domain.

Courts have consistently rejected this argument by drawing a clear distinction between the power of taxation and the power of eminent domain. Taxation is considered a fundamental obligation of property ownership, necessary to fund the government services that protect property rights and benefit the community. The Supreme Court has affirmed that taxation is not a ā€œtakingā€ in the constitutional sense."
[partial quote]

-LegalClarity Team
Published Jul 2, 2025

" A significant part of the Fourteenth Amendment is the Equal Protection Clause, which requires that all persons in similar situations be treated alike under the law. For property taxes, this clause mandates that taxes be applied uniformly and fairly to all comparable properties within a jurisdiction. A government cannot arbitrarily assess one home at a significantly higher percentage of its market value than a neighboring, similar home. Courts have consistently upheld tax systems that classify property (e.g., residential, commercial, agricultural) and tax them at different rates, as long as the taxation is uniform for all properties within the same class."

-LegalClarity Team

I think the assest value should become an open offer by the county to purchase the property. Would certainly make them more careful with the assessment.

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My thought was that it’s a regional school district so that number may reflect multiple towns.

I had a relative who was a police officer. He and his wife were always wanting their town to raise property taxes so they police budget could be expanded.

In most areas it’s the educators who are a large part of the need for property tax increases, in others it’s county employees. The unfunded retirements that get voted in are kicked down the road to be met by raising property taxes.

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It seems to me at first blush that as this case, as it resolves, would likely trigger ā€˜The Great Taking’. Comments?

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I read Detroit 2013 bankcruptcy case and pension claims were among biggest reasons there. City could live on tax revenue and costs alone but those funds and liabilities promised to huge chunk of residents cause problems down the road, especially when there are debt leverages used.

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I know some left leaning individuals are grateful for the government services.

If it looks like private enterprise, but worse, the government should get out.

If it looks like charity, you took away my willingness to give in order to give it to someone who is now entitled, administrated by someone who benefits as the problem gets bigger.

As I see it, the biggest problem with excessive taxes is that it reduces optionality. It may sound woo woo, but my rule of thumb is that the right answer generally creates more opportunities and options in the eventual future, rather than less.

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This is a very important story. I think sometimes we get so caught up in the larger macros it’s easy to overlook state and municipal debt which arguably can impact us more directly. Look at what happened to Portland Maine tax rates recently. Many homeowners saw increases of 50 percent!

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So population would be for the whole district, but households only for the town ?

Shouldn’t the ā€œburdenā€ be on all participants (i.e. whole population") benefitting from the school district, not just the households in the town ?

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The opening salvo of this interview just screams, ā€œYOU WILL OWN NOTHING AND BE HAPPY!ā€

I’ve contemplated that infamous statement. How can we get to the point of owning nothing? How are they going to pull that off? Well, ridiculously high property taxes is one way to un-house people. It’s predicted in our scriptures that people are going to be so heavily taxed, they will run into the forests to live.

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I listened to Mark last year and mow again.
Very doom and gloom has he agressively goes at the corrupt process.
I have commented similarly in other PP chats:
Does Mark really think any one cares who can do something ? We have little rule of law anylonger.
Just seems very pie in the sky …just feel hopeless. Trumps BBB scam, wars, medi al system corruption…as chris has said just follow the money.
Seems so little to do about any of this except work our individual plans and watch
Hope is getting to much to hope for lol
Prepare but how to deal with evil that comes at us from so many directions??

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I openly told the auditor (in-person review of the property) that if he thought the property was worth 20,000$ for my previously mentioned unbuildable garden lot, I’d be more than happy to part with it with him for merely 10,000$. He did not take this opportunity to double his money.

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We must influence those in our circle. At some point, the tolerance for this nonsense will be low enough it will be ousted.

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Possibly.

Just as likely, if not more likely, it triggers some blandly named Fed program that has a jumbled acronym such as TMBSP which stands for ā€œTemporary Municipal Bond Stability Program.ā€

Et voila!

Another smooth $5 trillion on the books!!

It’s like a Great Taking only less direct but, when the dust settles, we all discover that $5 trillion has been deftly removed from our collective bank accounts by the miracle of inflation.

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OR here is another Great Taking dystopian hypothesis….

Property taxes keep going exponentially until you can’t pay them anymore…… Blackrock buys your property back at auction for Pennies ……but because they turn it into multi family inclusive non discrimination… universal basic income housing…. OR a privately managed protective community wildlands/resource "see new big beautiful bill" Under a new government program They are exempt or pay super low property taxes and presto you own nothing and be happy and rent every thing you need…

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I’m sympathetic to the idea of a great taking as a process rather than an event.

TPTB are able to take from us on an ongoing basis through mechanisms like property taxes, which is one more way to milk the everything bubble / giant Ponzi scheme / credit boom.

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Agree that this is the base case. Grind you down like compound interest in reverse.

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Years back my mother took on the property accessor in her county/town. The properties were unequally appraised. She made spread sheets and ran the numbers and found people who had moved in more recently had far greater percentages of gain in property values. The accessor and other county employees had not had any gains for many many years. This is a woman who used to do quite large spreadsheets with a pencil and an adding matching back in the day as part of feasibility studies for new PGA golf courses. They should not have made her angry. She put up a website and everything.

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