{"id":3695,"date":"2026-07-27T12:38:23","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T12:38:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/interstatelogisticshubs.com\/?p=3695"},"modified":"2026-07-27T12:38:23","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T12:38:23","slug":"the-fraud-that-is-property-tax","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/interstatelogisticshubs.com\/?p=3695","title":{"rendered":"The fraud that is property tax"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

(This essay originally ran in the subscribers\u2019 newsletter this past Friday. For access to exclusive essays sent only to AT members, subscribe here.)<\/em><\/p>

Read more First, they came for South Africa<\/a><\/p>\n

I have a lot of issues with property tax\u2014so many that one essay in a weekly newsletter does not provide ample space to flesh them all out\u2014so I\u2019m just going to focus on one, and that\u2019s how the system flourishes through intentional fraud.<\/p>\n

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\u2019d 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.<\/p>\n

So, I called the number, and the man on the phone offered me a way to \u201cknock it all the way down\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

A few weeks later, I received a notice in the mail that my appointment with the board had been scheduled for\u2014the following day. Now, thank goodness that piece of mail wasn\u2019t delayed and that I actually was in town to make the meeting. (Seems intentional, doesn\u2019t it?)<\/p>\n

Anyway, I quickly got all my facts together.<\/p>\n

We all know the basics of appraisals: Your home\u2019s value depends on its size, its condition, how many bedrooms and bathrooms it has, its location, etc.<\/p>\n

With regard to my home, it\u2019s 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\u2019re extremely costly. I live in a modest but historic home, with grand ceilings, transom windows, and original hardwood floors, and I can\u2019t just slap on Home Depot bargain-bin materials\u2014I intend to honor the history of the house and renovate with that in mind.<\/p>\n

Anyway, the back portion of my house\u2014roughly 200 square feet\u2014is down to the new subfloor, and I expect it\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

On my block alone\u2014a span of about 12 houses\u2014there\u2019s a rental that can\u2019t be filled; a house much bigger than mine, with an additional bathroom, that\u2019s been on the market for so long that the owners dropped the price to $240,000 months ago, and there\u2019s 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\u2019s being auctioned off at $180,000.<\/p>

Read more The hidden benefit of U.S.-Israel military cooperation<\/a><\/p>\n

Not only would my home not appraise for $346,000 in a vacuum, but the local market certainly doesn\u2019t support such a high amount.<\/p>\n

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 \u201cvery compelling\u201d case and that they\u2019d be sending out the official update in the mail later that week.<\/p>\n

While I didn\u2019t expect them to agree to my $250k amount\u2014they\u2019re still government thieves, after all\u2014what I really didn\u2019t 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\u2014the original number!<\/p>\n

(I know, I know\u2014I was being naive.)<\/p>\n

That\u2019s total fraud<\/strong><\/em> because they are fully aware of the specifics. (They cannot claim plausible deniability on this one.)<\/p>\n

If a bank sought to inflate a home\u2019s value artificially for profit, that would be fraud.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s okay when the government does it?<\/p>\n

This form of government has become destructive to my right to life, liberty, and property, so I\u2019d like to dissolve these political bonds now. I no longer consent to be governed by such tyrannical crooks.<\/p>\n

(That\u2019s the filtered version, as my unfiltered thoughts on this sort of criminality are unshareable and definitely unpublishable.)<\/p>

Read more The Mohammunist Manifesto<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

\"ChatGPT\"<\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Stylized image of my little Alabama home.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(This essay originally ran in the subscribers\u2019 newsletter this past Friday. For access to exclusive essays sent only to AT members, subscribe here.) Read more First, they came for South Africa I have a lot of issues with property tax\u2014so many that one essay in a weekly newsletter does not provide ample space to flesh […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3693,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,147],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3695","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","category-taxes"],"yoast_head":"\nThe fraud that is property tax - Interstate Logistics Hub<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/interstatelogisticshubs.com\/?p=3695\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The fraud that is property tax - Interstate Logistics Hub\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"(This essay originally ran in the subscribers\u2019 newsletter this past Friday. 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