Working Off Your Property Taxes?
Posted on December 29th, 2007 by bile Categories and Tags: Uncategorized, confiscation, debt, Department of Education, eminent domain, finance management, New York, politics, property, taxes, Westchester CountyDorros, a 73-year-old widow, has lived in this home since 1963. She has no plans to ever leave. But she worries about ever-increasing property taxes, now totaling about $17,000 a year.
“It’s very exorbitant,” she said, of her property tax burden. That may be an understatement. New York’s Westchester County has the third highest property tax rate in the country. For people on a fixed income, such as Dorros, taxes gnaw away at their financial resources and security.
So, when Dorros heard about a proposal to allow seniors in her town to work off a portion of their property taxes, she was immediately interested.
The plan would allow Greenburgh residents over the age of 60 to earn a tax credit of up to $1,000 a year by working for the town. It could be tutoring schoolchildren, or working in a park in the summer. A retired lawyer could do legal work for the town. A former accountant could help town administrators with finance management.
It’s this kind of thing that the 2% SSI cost of living increase simply doesn’t help with. Property taxes are a complete negation of the idea that we have private property in this country (as if eminent domain wasn’t enough to prove that.) We simply lease the land from the government. This is practically indentured servitude. These people have to go find a job or work for the local government or else the police will come knocking on the door and toss you in jail. These municipalities just don’t know how to cut spending. The actual amount spent on “educating” children has doubled since the Department of Education was created yet our test scores are no better. The amount of money dedicated to schooling from property taxes has more than doubled in the same time and in what way are these seniors responsible for those children? I think it’s wonderful for retired seniors to work and keep themselves busy both physically and mentally. By all accounts it helps prolong their lives. This however is disgusting. What happens to all those who are left after all the government jobs are filled? What if there isn’t anything they can do either because their are no jobs or they are physically unable to do so? Will these people be fined? Jailed? Have their home taken? Property taxes should absolute not be a cause for a person to have to leave their home.
