Sheeesh!
I'd say lady, if you don't like it go home to Florida!
I would too! (good thing I wasn't there huh?LOL)

ughhh don't get me started on taxes, part-time residents and senior citizens unwilling to pay up on property taxes LOL. here property taxes can vary tremendously. someone who bought a house in Winter Park last yr can pay $20K in taxes while someone else living next door in their house for 20 yrs pays $300. i myself would love to not support schools especially since parents get such huge tax refunds due to their tax deductions per child while i pay more cuz i don't have kids. but my taxes do buy other amenities in my city, like cute historic street lights. i do think better control over second residences needs to happen as far as taxation occurs, like much higher rates. for the sake of fairness we need reassessment every 10 yrs and if you can no longer afford the new value and taxes you sell. it's not fair to residents paying incredible amounts of taxes to have to support those who are not paying as much who probably use the fire and rescue dept hundreds of times more than others. or at least that's the way it is w/ my neighbors.

no i don't pay $20K but my next door neighbor pays $300, i pay $4K and those down the street $8K. we all get the same services thou the neighbor who pays $300 uses fire & rescue every week. he should have to pay on par w/ the rest of us or we control what goes on here based on value and taxes paid. ~ liz

LOL

I think the same words were going through a lot of minds today.

She used to spend a lot of time gushing over how wonderful, quiet and peaceful our county is. Lately though she's trying to change it into what she left in Florida.
LOL
Like we're suppose to care how they do things back in Florida?

LOL

Her first irritation with our 'quaint little place' was when a gate was left open and cows got onto the golf course where she is a member. I know cows are messy and smelly. They are also pretty stupid but dang! What did they think was going to happen when than rancher sold them property next to the rest of his place? The first years the course didn't like the looks of the barbed wire and rebuilt the fences with disastrous results. (I guess that depends on who is looking at it though. The cows probably thought they were lucky to eat all the lush green grass on the twelfth hole....LOLOL) Now golf course is forced to 'look' at unsightly fencing to 'keep those stupid cows out.'
LOL

Moving the county seat almost broke my composure though.
LOL
She thinks taxes are high now?
How about a ten year bond to pay for a NEW courthouse?
LOL

Lori

Why such a variation Liz?

I'm talking a twenty mile distant between the resort towns and the ranch towns; the difference between second home lots and agricultural ground, etc not a one block area.

Emt and fire services are also an issue here. Because of the increase of people during the summer month, demand for these services is huge, far more than what is needed in the south, where less people live.

We also have a problem with law enforcement.
Holiday weekends in Bear Lake are huge.
Our county has one Sheriff and two deputies. They and the one highway patrolman and the game and fish warden spend 99.9 of their time at the Lake. At that, the protection is scary. In the south there is zero cop per 100 people; at the lake there is something like 1/4 of a cop per 100 people. There are two ambulances (in two towns) at the Lake and two in the south. The south ambulances are always called north for emergencies in addition to Idaho ambulances/emt/cops coming in as a courtesy.

Oh!
Speaking of public schools (and I don't what the solution to public schools/taxes/families with no children is), this woman was also PO'd because an oil well will be put in our county. The shale oil in the area is so large a sixty man camp will be constructed to handle the well as well as corporate offices. She's upset at the 'oilfield trash that'll be in our towns'. I perked up at this revelation.
If oil comes in our schools and county will benefit tremendously! I don't know if anyone explained this concept to her...probably not. You can handle a little garbage if the payoff is big enough. Besides, I think she considers us
fulltimers trashy....hummph! LOL

Lori

Gosh, hasn't that woman found out that life isn't always fair?
I love small town politics! My DD works in a small beach cafe where the "wheelers and dealers" have coffee every day. It is a hoot listening to them carry on when I happen to go in to see her when they are there.

Have the childless people who object to paying school taxes ever considered that their taxes go to educate the children who will grow up to be the doctors, nurses, paramedics, police, etc that we ALL depend on?

the variation comes because they don't reasses and our property values have increased by hundreds of %. my house was $99K 6.5 yrs ago, my next door neighbor bought 30 yrs ago at $30K and down the street someone bought last month at $258K. we all have the same type/age of homes, some have pools, a bit more sq ftage etc... but more or less we are all very similiar because they were al built in 1969.

it's all about the assessed value and no one in the state wants to introduce assessment to help everyone out of a huge tax mess just to save some cheap seniors and allow them to get away w/o paying their share. because of huge budget shortfalls all counties are cutting back significantly after inflating budgets w/ junk and now that houses are sitting on the market for a couple months (very long time for FL market) and values are not sky rocketting their planned budgets are not there.... of course the emergency depts are threatening to close which would mostly affect the old who use them the most. there has been 1 fire in 6.5 yrs in my subdivision but the fire and rescue comes by day and night...

i'm sure that woman pays more mileage in UT then in FL due to exemptions and no reassessments. i feel if you can afford a second home then you can pay at the highest rate and then they could allow an $25K exemption for seniors over 70. otherwise no exemptions and we should all pay the same rates...or dole out services based on amount paid :-) ~ liz

i feel if you can afford a second home then you can pay at the highest rate

I agree Liz.
Totally!

Lori

Lori--we have the same gripes here in Florida. And I bet that neighbor would be screaming the same stuff if she was here, but in a different county than her grandkids.

I think it's incredibly stupid and selfish to think you shouldn't have to pay school tax just because your GK's aren't going in that state, or that your kids are all out of school so therefore you should be exempt. With that sort of thinking, I guess single people, young married couples w/o children or any other people who have no children shouldn't have to pay, either.

I've heard that several times. First time I thought the guy was joking. Wish I had a great comeback, but guess it'd just go over their heads.

We're in Florida as well. 5 years ago we moved from a huge home on 1½ acres to a home ½ the size of the other and on a lot that's a bit bigger than ½ acre. We did it because the other home was too big since my mom died and the kids were grown and out. The yard was a hassel to take care of, too. And we were trying to be a bit frugal as well.
Well....we now have a smaller home, a smaller lot and taxes that are more than double what we were paying on the other house. We should have stayed where we were; it would have been cheaper in the long run for us.

Not to start an arguement with Liz, but I'm not sure reassesment is the answer either. What about an elderly couple who built out in the boonies 40 years ago before civilization declared their property to be prime? Is it fair that their property be taxed to the point they are forced out of their home? And with real estate what it is, where would they go? Even if they bought cheap, they'd be taxed high.
I think government needs to get smaller and needs to stop throwing the public's money down the drain. There are too many extras in the budgets that should be going to the neccessities.
If I hear about another sports facility that our taxes for the next 75 years are going to pay for, I think I will start throwing tomatoes at our city and county commissioners.
We don't have enough water as it is and more construction is being permitted without the developers being charged a usage fee. Firefighter hiring is frozen with many personnel retiring this year. So, we'll be short manpower there.
Same with law enforcement.
Don't get me started 'cause I could go on forever.

Lori- we had a saying in FL when the northerners would come down and try to change things- "Delta is ready when you are!" (No offense, Liz!) lolol And we also told them "I-95 goes north, too, you know!" Your lady sounds like a real peach. Why doesn't she stay home and cook their own dinner? Are yours provided free for the multi-home owners? Or are they paid for by "her" tax dollars with no charge at the door? Can anyone eat there? I love meatloaf. :)

I get very annoyed when our taxes go up just because other homes in the area have sold for higher amounts than they paid for them. IMO, our taxes shouldn't change unless and until our home sells or changes hands. And the majority of our taxes go to the school system, a system that we as adults have never used, since we have no children. If I didn't have to pay school taxes, I'd be paying a pittance.

As it is though, our taxes go up every year, because the assessor comes around every year. And any little change to the place causes another increase. Got a new shed? That'll cost ya!

This lady is carried on a tax-paid bus, driven by a tax-paid driver, sixty miles (round trip) to eat a $2.50 meal which costs $5.75 per person to make. There is also a senor bus (tax bought and paid for), driven by a tax paid driver that goes to Evanston three times a week (a hundred mile round trip if folks from the north side of the county goes) and to Montpelier, Idaho (another hundred mile round trip if only the whole county goes) two days a week. These trips cost the seniors nothing and we're required by law to take them where they need to go; shopping, doctors, dentists, banking, etc. when they need to go; even if only one senior is on the bus.
I think it's a good deal.
I don't know what Miss Florida's view is.
(Nothing personal to you Floridians....)

Our county school taxes pay for capital projects, such as classrooms,etc. etc. During the 80s oil boom and had to expand all schools (the high school and elementary to the south; the middle school and elementary to the north) because there were lots of oilfield workers living in the county. The oil patches, unfortunately, were NOT in the county but in Wyoming. Oil and coal makes for some GREAT schools! We're just paying off the last construction bond this year. The schools are nice and accommodated all students six years ago, but guess what? The year round population numbers have dropped (the summer people take their kids back home during the school year) and now we'llto lose the state per student funding.

Federal mandated programs can wreck a tiny county's coffers, whether you're a kid or a senior. The new food pyramid is giving us fits at the center. The additional servings of fruit and veggies is great healthwise BUT those are the most expensive foods, food we can't get from the food banks or commodity centers. Of course, our budget can't be increased, without a tax raise.

The more I think and talk about this the more depressed I get! :)
Perhaps Claude Dallas had the right idea?
No.
Wait.
He's in jail.
Paid for by the taxes......

Lori

I know what the solution for families w/ no kid who pay school taxes is:

shut up and pay your taxes.

Somebody paid for YOUR schooling. And those kids in that school are going to be YOUR doctors when you're elderly. The nurses who take care of you. And the TAXPAYERS who fund your Medicare and Medicaid. Don't you want them to be well educated?

The education of children is NOT a family responsibility. It is a community responsibility, because the community benefits.

So shut up and pay your share.
The benefits you reap from not having children will come in all the OTHER things you get that families don't. Like a good night's sleep, and no soccer games you have to go to. And a much greater discretionary income!

Interesting the subject of varied property taxes..
I live in a county where you pay a percentage for each item that was levied and approved by the voters, based on your tax assessed value. So the only difference in taxes amongst home owners is the value of your land and house not how much each individual paid for it.

Well Miss Florida could have a summer home here...and then she'd be paying a percentage of her taxes to a school district that mismanages the funds and always wants more!!!

You're lucky....no one "wants" a second home located where we're at

And we wonder why some states like OR and MT hate Californians. Before all of you get on my case, let me tell you why, and it may not be so now.
Several years ago, people from CA started selling their homes in Los angeles for BIG BUCKS!!They then moved to the Antelope Valley and paid cash for the homes at whatever the seller asked, then they registered their boats and campers, and bought property in OR--no tax (which TG has stopped, then to MT bought property, complained about the lack of resourses, no shopping areas, this and that and now those people in the states and many others are paying high taxes and are still angry. It is happening all over--people move and immediately want to make the locals change to their way of doing and never do much for the community, just complaints!!!!!
Just tell that woman that she could move to ND and find out what happens when new people complain. After all some of us do have a big mouth!

Lori--and others involved with "old people""
From a Senior--This is the way our center runs. We get mill money, collect dues --a whole 5.00 per year, and yes some complain at that. Then for the senior meals, each person pays 3.00 per meal, then the balace of the meal is paid to the cafe by the Senior Association in this state.
By the way, the cafe is told by the FDA what to serve and how much. As of Dec ?? soup can no longer be on the menu to seniors--reason--too much salt. --so they say. If your cafe is doing meals and if they don't follow the FDA guidelines, they will not get paid for the meals.
As to the bus, it is sponsered by Souris Rver Assoc and each person has to pay a prescribed amount. The go from one small town to a big town once a week. No free rides.

No soup?
I haven't heard about that Marie but probably will.
Being small has it's benefits as nearly everything we serve is made from scratch, including the soups. Our patrons then doctor the food to their taste. We accept 'donations' from the patrons; we can't charge them. Our collection box must be out of our sight so we can't tell who pays or who doesn't.

No one wants a summer home where I live either Maybee; too cold and too many bugs. I'm talking about the north end of Rich county, through a mountain pass, where the climate is milder, the bugs fewer and the view (to some, not me) is more spectacular.) Someday my side of the valley will be filled with houses but only when every other available space in the state is taken.

Add Wyoming to the list of CA-haters.
Those who couldn't find a place in Oregon or Montana settled in Wyoming. It makes me sick to see the houses where all the dryfarms and alfalfa fields and cattle pasture used to be. And those people too move in then try to change everything then wonder why the natives get testy.

Personally I'd like to see that oil well come in and other fields developed. Oil makes counties wealthy which can (if managed properly) provide lots of services and takes the burden off tax payers.

Lori

MAN OH MAN...for your sake Lori...I hope she gets fed up and moves somewhere ELSE!! but you know people like her don't ever leave and can't seem to get the drift that people aren't listening to her!!

No soup? Weird. Homemade soup can have as much or as little salt as you want. And it's a great way to use up bits and pieces.
Of course, if you only use canned soup, yes, that's salty.

Lori, I hope she likes it there better than here and doesn't come back. We don't need her attitude in these here parts, either.

LOL

I don't dare dream she'll go somewhere else.
:)
Wherever that might be a KTer will live there.
I'd hate to inflict her on anyone...

Lori

"As of Dec ?? soup can no longer be on the menu to seniors--reason--too much salt."

I'm not understanding this part. Ah, like 'just don't add salt'.

Why would soup be banned when you could just make it without salt?

Is there a link to this? Is our government really this silly to make a rule lke this?

PLEASE don't send another one like her to Florida!

We have the same thing down here, parttimers who think they shouldn't have to pay for schools or roads. Who do they think tears up the roads? The trucks and cars that double this time of year! As for schools, where does she want the people who are to run her banks, grocery stores, etc. to get educated?

It's only the nouveau riche (new rich) who act this way. And the spoiled. The real monied people don't have to act like that and flaunt their wealth to get attention.

Sounds to me like she just wanted everyone to know she had a little bit of dough. Too bad she has no common sense.

On the other hand, in my town, they did exactly what she was asking them to do. They moved all the city offices and services to the other side of town...where the rich people are. They promised us they would not abandon the original city, and that's exactly what they've done. There isn't even a police substation over here. They tore down the old police station and city hall. Have no idea what they're going to put there.

I sometimes thank young mothers who are trundling children around in strollers, etc.

Saying that their youngies'll be paying my pension in 20 years.

If we don't train our younger generation well, how will they compete with kids from poor nations who know that they must run smart and fast to get anywhere?

And we're having so few kids that we need to bring in immigrants to do the work that there's not enough of our younger generation to have all of the needed jobs get filled.

Also, in many parts of the world people favour universal health care.

Dad used to say that some people have a taste for champagne ... but the wallet'll only finance beer.

Good wishes for helping more people see how important it is for us to all pay our share of helping meet the community's needs.

ole joyful