That's quite some handle bro ... And apparently there's more than 1.

 

I have a 60 acre ranch in California too that's dropped in value by 40% since 2000 so now at least my property taxes dropped as well. God bless prop 13, the only thing that can save NJ. None the less I'm getting screwed in CA because I bought that ranch well before the real estate bubble. The situation is so bad there that it's moved well beyond the bubble.

But you want to know what's even more depressing?

In NJ we have these crazy property taxes and the frickin' state is still broke!

Never let politicians anywhere near your money if you can. They're all OPM addicts.

We really need a property tax revolt here just like California did years ago. Now if the morons who lived there would stop voting to spend money they don't have.

Starve the beast! (good bumper sticker!)

 

Talking about ahole neighbors, note the for sale sign in the foreground, I wonder if its "flamethrower guys" or the neighbors? hmmmmm

 

Wow. I'm stunned at your NJ taxes. I knew they were crazy but seeing the actual figures is an eye opener.

I think I will no longer complain about paying roughly $4500 a year for a 3500sq ft house on 2.5 acres in the Pittsburgh suburbs. And I live in the one of the top 3 highest property tax areas, if not the highest. I used to think this was bad since i pay about $800 a year for taxes on 50 acres of forest with a double wide on it (deer camp) in the PA mountains.

For the kind of taxes you guys pay I'ed expect the municipality to plow my freaking driveway, deliver the morning paper with a bag of doughnuts, and polish my boots before I left the house.

 

......and wash the Jag!!!!

 

You'd let someone else wash the jag?

 

under supervision, of course..........................

 

I'd rather wash her myself.

 

Or have her wash you.

 

Ahem! I was meaning the jag!

 

Add a couple BJs and still wouldn't be worth it!

It's all welfare where I live but If I tried to live across the river in Manhattan it would be a whole lot worse so it's all relative.

 

Yeah sure you were ...

 

I'm still picking myself up off the floor after reading about the property taxes in New Jersey. I figured Bob's initial amount of $22K was a typo, but then George piped in with his $17.5K. Comparable home values here in North Carolina would be taxed at about $5K to $6K. Incredible. I'll just stay right here, thank you....

 

Our local governments - Police, Fire, Ambulance services as well as schools, road maintenance etc are all funded via Property Taxes in NJ.

We have the same federal tax burden as everyone else, but for some reason the Northeast feels compelled to spend 2 and 3 times the $$.

We also have a 7% state sales tax (similar to your VAT).

One example of this, I have a good friend who's husband is a police officer. They have a fixed pay scale based on how long they have been on the job. It starts at about 60k a yr and climbs to just over 90k after about 6 years. Then there are additional jumps for gaining rank. This is excluding any overtime, uniform allowances etc. Most cops make well into the 6 figures. Plus they don't contribute one dime towards their health care costs or pensions.

Instead of being elated about this, he was angry because the next town over paid about 10k more across the board. When I mentioned to him cops in urban areas getting laid off, and the possibility of them having to contribute to their insurance and pension costs (as 95% of private workers do), the conversation pretty much ended there.

Take care,

George

 

A lot of people are blind to the cost of living differences regionally in this country (including certain politicians who angrily bang their fist and loathe people making over xxx a year).

Back in 1998 my first job out of college was with Prudential Financial In Newark, NJ. At the time the .coms were all the rage and the stock market was like a giant craps table only people thought they could never lose.

Prudential had hired a bunch of statisticians and commissioned a study to create a "standard" for the type of client their financial advisers should seek out.

They defined this client as moderately affluent and living a "100k a year income level lifestyle". The job of the statisticians was to take all the various regional factors into account, and come up with a real world income figure that would afford clients in different regional markets with this type of life.

The results were eye opening.

The most expensive area was NYC and it's suburbs. You had to make 213k to live the average "100k" lifestyle.
NJ was second on the list at 183k

California was somewhere in the middle.
The cheapest place in the country to live this life at the time:

Dallas, TX. You needed to earn 72k to live the national "100k" lifestyle.

Take care,

George

 

We just had the re-run of Jeremy Clarkson being towed on a pair of skis behind a Jaguar X-type AWD, which Clarkson reckons is as good as a Landrover on snow and ice.
Leedsman.

 

Good point, I was forgetting this is a car forum

VAT just went up and is now 20%

 

Dumb ideas always seem to have a international appeal.

So dissecting the "VAT" acronym:

I understand the "Tax" part.

Where's the Value Added part?

 

What's interesting is the fact that the American Tax system is just as if not more progressive than the European one already (when everything is added up). Yet we brand them socialists cause they provide public services in exchange for their tax dollars, where we just waste ours on stupid things.
We could have every European program, medical care, govt funded pensions etc, for our current tax rates if we hadn't created a quasi welfare state, or dump trillions into pointless wars we can't win.

Take care,

George

 

Cut the taxes and starve the beast to death.

I have high taxes where I live. They have a lot of services. Library is OK. Way too many buses "taxis" clogging the streets that look like they've been discarded by Mexico City. They pick up garbage, recycling and general trash for no charge too. But if you add up what those "services" are worth to you it turns out to be a bad deal.

I just need to move out of the state. When that happens in large enough numbers and only the poor and corrupt officials are left then they'll get it.

It's happened in California. They just haven't quite surrendered yet.

Hey, enough of this "crap" George. back to cars right? :>)