Property tax bills soar in Massachusetts as services fall

By Jim on September 3rd, 2007

I’m posting this story about property taxes rising in Taxachusetts for those of you out there who are naieve or stupid enough to believe that property taxes will fall if we put an income and/or sales tax in place here in New Hampshire.

The parasites in state government can NEVER get their hands on enough money! The more taxes they have in place, they more they want to raise them or add more taxes.

Bear this in mind when you vote in 2008. If the Democrats are reelected at the state level in New Hampshire along with Governor Lynch then we’d all best prepare ourselves for what flow naturally from that…more taxes added and higher taxes for the ones that already exist.

Residential property taxes rose an average of $161 in cities and towns across the state in the past fiscal year, as home assessments hit historic highs despite declining market values. The average property tax bill for a single-family home hit $3,962, up 4.2 percent from the previous year. Taxes climbed 7 percent or higher in more than 65 communities, according to data from the state Department of Revenue.

Since 2000, property taxes have shot up nearly 50 percent, from $2,679, far outpacing gains in wages, which climbed 30 percent statewide over the same period, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. Over the past seven years, the average annual property tax hikes for homeowners have ranged from about $150 to nearly $215.

Taxpayers are being asked to pay more at a time when they are seeing local services decline, as cities and towns struggle to cover rising healthcare, utility, and pension costs. It comes at a time when the assessed value of their homes has begun to exceed the actual value, because of the decline in the housing market.