GF Taxes and Budgets: Property Tax Bills
This is the second in a series on the taxes and budgets in Grand Forks.
In my last post (and first on this topic) I discussed the question of how your tax dollars were being split up among the county, city , school system and the park board. Today I want to discuss the next step; your actual tax bill.
In order to remain consistent I am going to continue to talk about properties from 2001 thru 2005. I went on the county's web site and pulled up five properties at random. I tried to pick a variety of neighborhoods in order to get a good cross section.
The first thing I did was check with my handy dandy inflation calculator. I found that $100 in 2001 was 108.45. So we could expect a 8.45% increase in taxes for inflation. .
As a whole the five properties valuation went up 25% while taxes went up 23%. Remember that if taxes only went up the rate of inflation taxes would have gone up 8.45%. They went up nearly three times that rate of inflation.
On my tax bill, special taxes for flood protection amounted to only 3.6% of the total bill in 2005. So our tax bills have been climbing twice as fast as the inflation and the flood protection combined. That rate of growth in government spending is unsustainable and we are starting to feel the pain.
From 2001 to 2005 we saw a lot of growth in the value of housing. Factors that would have led to that is the nationwide housing market, low interest rates, higher costs of housing construction, and perhaps housing being a safe place to put your money.
I don't see the fact that houses cost more as a reason for local governments to spend more. With real estate prices rising it's probably pretty easy for government leaders to leave the mill rates the same and spend the windfall tax revenues that result. That doesn't do the citizens of Grand Forks any good as they have to struggle to pay for higher housing, insurance and now property taxes.
Anyway, enough of that I want to break out the numbers and not go out of my way to make anyone look bad.
I included the details of the houses I used in the extended entries. You can find my first post GF Taxes and Budgets here.
My next story will deal with school district funding. Here are the details on the five houses I selected for my sample. In order to keep the numbers straight I'll start with least expensive and move to most expensive:
I had a house on 9th Street South that was valued for $55,600 in 2001 that was valued at $75,700 in 2005. Taxes in that time went from $1,313, $1,758. That's a 36% increase in value and a 34% increase in taxes.
The second house as on 8th Ave N. That was revalued from $89,300 to $118,900. Taxes went from $2,085 to $2,714. That's an increase of 33% in valuation and 30% in taxes.
The third property was on Great Plains Court. The property was valued in 2001 at $100,055. By 2005 the value was set at $122,200. Taxes went from $2,344 to $2,791. Valuation went up 22% and taxes were up 19%.
The fourth property was Cherry Lynn Drive. The property went from $113,700 to $142,100. Taxes climbed from $2,667 to $3,277. That works out to 25% and 23%.
The final property was on Windward Hills. The property was valued at $169,600 in 2001 and $204,000 in 2005. Taxes went from $3,956 to $4,633. That's an increase of 20% in valuation and 18% in taxes paid.
In my last post (and first on this topic) I discussed the question of how your tax dollars were being split up among the county, city , school system and the park board. Today I want to discuss the next step; your actual tax bill.
In order to remain consistent I am going to continue to talk about properties from 2001 thru 2005. I went on the county's web site and pulled up five properties at random. I tried to pick a variety of neighborhoods in order to get a good cross section.
The first thing I did was check with my handy dandy inflation calculator. I found that $100 in 2001 was 108.45. So we could expect a 8.45% increase in taxes for inflation. .
As a whole the five properties valuation went up 25% while taxes went up 23%. Remember that if taxes only went up the rate of inflation taxes would have gone up 8.45%. They went up nearly three times that rate of inflation.
On my tax bill, special taxes for flood protection amounted to only 3.6% of the total bill in 2005. So our tax bills have been climbing twice as fast as the inflation and the flood protection combined. That rate of growth in government spending is unsustainable and we are starting to feel the pain.
From 2001 to 2005 we saw a lot of growth in the value of housing. Factors that would have led to that is the nationwide housing market, low interest rates, higher costs of housing construction, and perhaps housing being a safe place to put your money.
I don't see the fact that houses cost more as a reason for local governments to spend more. With real estate prices rising it's probably pretty easy for government leaders to leave the mill rates the same and spend the windfall tax revenues that result. That doesn't do the citizens of Grand Forks any good as they have to struggle to pay for higher housing, insurance and now property taxes.
Anyway, enough of that I want to break out the numbers and not go out of my way to make anyone look bad.
I included the details of the houses I used in the extended entries. You can find my first post GF Taxes and Budgets here.
My next story will deal with school district funding. Here are the details on the five houses I selected for my sample. In order to keep the numbers straight I'll start with least expensive and move to most expensive:
I had a house on 9th Street South that was valued for $55,600 in 2001 that was valued at $75,700 in 2005. Taxes in that time went from $1,313, $1,758. That's a 36% increase in value and a 34% increase in taxes.
The second house as on 8th Ave N. That was revalued from $89,300 to $118,900. Taxes went from $2,085 to $2,714. That's an increase of 33% in valuation and 30% in taxes.
The third property was on Great Plains Court. The property was valued in 2001 at $100,055. By 2005 the value was set at $122,200. Taxes went from $2,344 to $2,791. Valuation went up 22% and taxes were up 19%.
The fourth property was Cherry Lynn Drive. The property went from $113,700 to $142,100. Taxes climbed from $2,667 to $3,277. That works out to 25% and 23%.
The final property was on Windward Hills. The property was valued at $169,600 in 2001 and $204,000 in 2005. Taxes went from $3,956 to $4,633. That's an increase of 20% in valuation and 18% in taxes paid.
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