Taxes, Schools, and Housing in Wisconsin- Oh My

I initially wrote this post on December 31, 2008, but given the recent furlough considerations in Waukesha County Wisconsin not to mention our Wisconsin budget deficit I think it's worth a look.

Quality of Life....What happens to it when the city you reside in starts to depreciate significantly in house values and reos and foreclosures increase?

What happens to your qualify of life in a city like Detroitwhere foreclosures and short sales are the heavyweight champ?  How the qualify of life in Riverside, Los Angeles, or Stockton California which are all cities showing double digit depreciation and named after Detroit as the worst housing markets of 2009 by Housing Predictor.

Real estate taxes have been supporting Public Works and additional public programs.  When the housing market was in it's glory years in the early 2000's and real estate was appreciating like wildfire, real estate taxes were increasing.  Real estate taxes were "good business" and guaranteed money in the bank.

Not really though, that money came and went and like the rest of many industries across America, savings seems like a mystical theory rather than a practical application.

Real estate taxes pay for many "luxuries" like,

Police
Fire and ambulance emergency response
Parks and Recreation programs
Street repair and road construction for residential streets
Building permitting and inspection services
Animal control
Snow removal

Let's not forget schools.

The trickle down effect of the housing markethas many tentacles that stretch beyond the apparent "refusal to help main street".  If main street keeps on begin ciphoned and wall street keeps on getting padded, well,

DIY might just take on a whole new meaning.

 

Comments

[Polly Briley]

This is a fact that can not be stated enough.