“Time to Stop Bleeding Homeowners”

Following 1980 passage of the property tax limitation initiative Prop 2 1/2 those favoring unlimited government revenues were Chicken Little-ish in their dire predictions-closed schools, stopped public transport and every kind of public service office closed and shuttered.

Well, lo and behold, instead of the forecasted disaster the government revenues increased and services continued. Not surprisingly Boston’s mayor continued to receive his salary and rubbish pickups continued weekly for 24 years.

Property taxes however, stagnant for a time, are increasing now at startling rates. Though fixed income and elderly homeowners are hit hard by the tax increase they are the not the only ones affected. Skyrocketing taxes, fueled by the rise in home prices and, in particular, by the way cities assess properties’ value also make it difficult financially for low and middle-income wage earners.

Many Boston homeowners received letters this fall warning them of property tax payment delinquency. It is a distressing notice for those who have lived a lifetime in their home, raising children or caring for aged parents, to suddenly realize they may not be able to afford to live in the family house because of government taxes

No homeowner should live under threat of foreclosure due to excessive taxation nor have to choose between life’s necessities and the need to remain in their home. Massachusetts, like California’s 1978 Proposition 13 which did fully protect homeowners there, should enact a freeze on property valuations to end this government theft of private property.

Proposition 13 which limits the assessed value of property to the market price an owner first paid for the property until it is re-sold (and then revalued) made sense in 1980. It makes even more sense now. It enhanced community stability by discouraging speculation and protected homeowners who wanted to remain in the community but would otherwise have been forced out by high property taxes. This danger threatens many in Boston and other Massachusetts cities today.

That this crucial taxpayer protection was not included in the Massachusetts initiative was a mistaken concession by the Prop 2 ˝ architects to the “government-should-fund-everything” lobby.

If the provision was enacted in 1980 the property taxes on a home purchased that year for, say, $100,000. and still under the same ownership today would be valued for tax purposes at that 1980 purchase price, not the more likely current price of $500,000. The 2004 property taxes would be only a fifth or less of what they are today. Instead of a $3000. tax bill a homeowner would pay $600. this year.

We do not protect our communities by forcing people out of their homes. A government with excessive tax harvesting as its main goal, displacing long term residents in the process, is shortchanging all of us. Property assessment which limits the value to the purchase price would help to keep Massachusetts cities, especially Boston, a place where those who grew up there could continue to live.