(This essay originally ran in the subscribers’ newsletter this past Friday. For access to exclusive essays sent only to AT members, subscribe here.)
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I have a lot of issues with property tax—so many that one essay in a weekly newsletter does not provide ample space to flesh them all out—so I’m just going to focus on one, and that’s how the system flourishes through intentional fraud.
A few months back, I received a little postcard from my local city government telling me that my tax rate was going up because they’d now be using an appraised value of $346,000 to determine my assessed value. The notice also included a way to protest this amount if I, as the homeowner, felt it to be inaccurate, which I certainly knew it to be.
So, I called the number, and the man on the phone offered me a way to “knock it all the way down” to a lower number. I quickly did the math, and it amounted to about a $15 difference annually, so I politely declined. He then noted that I could appear before the board and make my case, and I opted for that route.
A few weeks later, I received a notice in the mail that my appointment with the board had been scheduled for—the following day. Now, thank goodness that piece of mail wasn’t delayed and that I actually was in town to make the meeting. (Seems intentional, doesn’t it?)
Anyway, I quickly got all my facts together.
We all know the basics of appraisals: Your home’s value depends on its size, its condition, how many bedrooms and bathrooms it has, its location, etc.
With regard to my home, it’s around 2,100 square feet, with three bedrooms and one bathroom. We did have two bathrooms when we moved in but had to rip one out after we discovered some serious mold issues, and repairs are extremely slow because they’re extremely costly. I live in a modest but historic home, with grand ceilings, transom windows, and original hardwood floors, and I can’t just slap on Home Depot bargain-bin materials—I intend to honor the history of the house and renovate with that in mind.
Anyway, the back portion of my house—roughly 200 square feet—is down to the new subfloor, and I expect it’s going to be that way for a while. I grew up in a house that my parents renovated on their own, so walking on plywood and stepping over air-compressor hoses are no big deal.
On my block alone—a span of about 12 houses—there’s a rental that can’t be filled; a house much bigger than mine, with an additional bathroom, that’s been on the market for so long that the owners dropped the price to $240,000 months ago, and there’s still no movement; a house sitting empty while its owners wait for market conditions to improve; and a foreclosure directly across the street from me that’s being auctioned off at $180,000.
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Not only would my home not appraise for $346,000 in a vacuum, but the local market certainly doesn’t support such a high amount.
So, I took off work to make the meeting, laid everything out to the board with all my documentation, and told them I felt that a generous appraised amount would be $250,000 and that I was willing to accept that. They said I made a “very compelling” case and that they’d be sending out the official update in the mail later that week.
While I didn’t expect them to agree to my $250k amount—they’re still government thieves, after all—what I really didn’t expect was for them to hear all the evidence and still come back and tell me that my assessed value would be based on an appraised value of $346k—the original number!
(I know, I know—I was being naive.)
That’s total fraud because they are fully aware of the specifics. (They cannot claim plausible deniability on this one.)
If a bank sought to inflate a home’s value artificially for profit, that would be fraud.
If I were applying for a loan and my appraiser drastically inflated the value beyond all reason and evidence to obtain a higher loan amount on my behalf, that would be fraud.
But it’s okay when the government does it?
This form of government has become destructive to my right to life, liberty, and property, so I’d like to dissolve these political bonds now. I no longer consent to be governed by such tyrannical crooks.
(That’s the filtered version, as my unfiltered thoughts on this sort of criminality are unshareable and definitely unpublishable.)
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Stylized image of my little Alabama home.