Comment by StillBored | Hacker News Reader

Comment by StillBored | Hacker News Reader

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At least in Texas raising property taxes as such isn't the answer. Rather capping the amount a single owner/organization can claim in ag/etc exemptions, while making it easier for small 20 acre farms to claim the exemption. Right now what you have is the richest land owners paying the lowest rates, while owners of tiny suburban/rural lots get murdered.

For example, I give you a few pieces of the 6d ranch, located on some of the most prime real-estate in Austin Tx.

(Lot 4, 260 acres, $307 in taxes) http://propaccess.traviscad.org/clientdb/Property.aspx?cid=1...

(Lot 2, 155 acres, $278 in taxes) http://propaccess.traviscad.org/clientdb/Property.aspx?cid=1...

(Lot 1, ~120 acres + ~7000 sqft cottage, boat dock larger than my house, and a bunch of other stuff, $69,556 in taxes) http://propaccess.traviscad.org/clientdb/Property.aspx?cid=1...

The $70 thousand a year in taxes seems like a lot, unless you consider that I live a few miles away and pay ~15k a year for less than .1 acre and live in a house that isn't even as nice as the boat dock on that property.

(if you google it a bit you can probably figure out who owns it, but good luck untwisting the layers of shell corps listed on the tax appraisal)

No one is doing any commercially meaningful farming (not even for a small business) on 20 acres.

Consider for grazing use 2-6 acres per cow is needed. 4 cows, isnt even a blip. Nor can you farm most crops meaningfully on 20 acre plots either.

On lot 1, most of the taxed value is derived from the improvements, not the land itself.

Lot1: is prime lakefront property, with over a 100 acres next door to neighborhoods where land is in excess of $100k an acre.

As for small scale farming:

https://ensia.com/features/urban-agriculture-is-booming-but-...

edit: To be exact about $720k an acre, given this nearly adjacent:

(.3 acre 4391 sqft, $20k taxes)

http://propaccess.traviscad.org/clientdb/Property.aspx?cid=1...

again the improvements are worth more than the land, but if the guy had a full acre that wouldn't be true.

There appears to be at least one counterexample, if you count "supporting one's family" as commercially meaningful.

Currently reading The Market Gardener and it's surprisingly fascinating for a guide to intensively cultivating on about 1.5 acres - about 140k CAD gross, 60k revenue on 1.5 acres - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18406251-the-market-gard...

(the author) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Martin_Fortier

Thanks for the recommendation, I'm going to check it out.

I ended up reading most of it in one sitting; surprisingly engaging.

> Nor can you farm most crops meaningfully on 20 acre plots either.

Perhaps your definition of crop is too narrow. Something like hops is well suited to "commercial" sizes starting at 20 acres.[1]

Vineyards supplying a co-operative? 20 acres of fruit trees for boutique cider production?

I think there's probably quite a few examples of 20 acre crops which are sustainable commercially.

[1] "...EU competitive hop farms (more than 10 ha of hops) ..." https://www.dlib.si/stream/URN:NBN:SI:DOC-CWQINAJR/eaf94387-...

Intensive veggie growers ("intensive" means "scaled-up home garden") can make 6 figures on 1.5-2 acres. Selling higher-margin crops direct to customers puts a lot of money in the farmer's pocket.

You can feed a family with vegetables and eggs on less than two acres (some claim 1/4 acre) if you know how.

You pay $15,000 / year in property taxes on a lot less than 1 acre? Is that normal for Texas?

Yes, see my other comment above for a (random) single family home adjacent to the 6d ranch on .3 acres.

Texas is a low tax state if your a billionaire, or business, everyone else is fscked.

No, it isn't. I was paying $4100 for a similar property in Dallas in 2016.

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