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Comment by CWuestefeld | Hacker News Reader

Not disagreeing with your observations, but I'd like to add property taxes, and most specifically, the portion used to support public schools, to your list. Excluding the past year, this is where I've seen the greatest increases in my expenses.

And since it's government creating most of this, it's hard to imagine that there's any relief to be found by looking towards government for a solution.

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I think you may have missed that Florida passed a school choice act, and that tons of funds are now flowing into private religious schools. A ridiculous waste of money, especially considering a majority of said schools raised their tuition rates to just absorb the new funding. DeSantis policies at work.

I'm not religious myself, but I still think it's pretty ridiculous for you to assume that this mode of education has no value. Isn't our modern watch word supposed to be "tolerance", and not objecting to other members of our community following their values even when those are different from our own?

I'm fine subsidizing education of any form, as long as what I'm subsidizing meets all the same standards and burdens that the public option does for the same amount of funding. The idea that they can charge a tuition greater than the subsidized amount is tantamount to a handout.

If they want to incorporate religion and/or alternative education, it should be on top of the same requirement the public school systems follow. (i.e. They should be required to teach the standard classes without religious influence or bias. Let their religious teachings be separate classes. No student receiving a publicly funded education should be taught exclusively that the earth is only 6000 years old or supplied with publicly funded textbooks that outright reject evolution in all forms.)

The NW had a case over the last several years, where there was really perverse behavior.

Except for Seattle / Portland, not many companies really invest in the NW. Except all the residential prices just rise and rise. ex: "66% (8331) of residential properties in Post Falls saw a property tax climb between 2019 and 2020. Yet only 6% (71) of commercial properties (6%) experienced an increase".

So when the pandemic was ramping up, all the property tax burden dropped right on top of the homeowners.

Annnnnd: If you don't pay your property taxes, it doesn't matter if you own your house. Title. Everything. Can take it away for a couple years of property taxes. In many states, they don't even have to pay you the sale price difference.

> property taxes

Anywhere that has property taxes really needs to have a clause similar to what Oregon has that states that the assessed value of your property cannot increase by more than 3% per year for property tax calculation purposes.

It's pretty bonkers that people can very quickly, over the course of less than 5 years, get priced out of a place that they own, just because the market became white hot.

I bought my house in 2015 for $340K. It's currently estimated to be $600K. Yet I'm paying taxes assuming a $250K value.

Granted, I think the 3% limit is too low. I think 4-5% is more reasonable.

Maybe they could lock it to COLA used for SS benefits?

>And since it's government creating most of this, it's hard to imagine that there's any relief to be found by looking towards government for a solution.

Maybe not the government you're electing.

Those damn public schools. Schools ought to be private so only the wealthy can afford them. That way the lessers know their place and can get their kids cleaning toilets and digging ditches sooner!

Are we not allowed to question any increase to taxation when its related to education?

Especially when the US public education system spends more per pupil than almost every other country on the planet[0], with appalling results. In fact, as spending increased 30% over the past decade, student achievements flatlined, then fell precipitously after Covid[1].

[0]: https://educationdata.org/public-education-spending-statisti...

[1]: https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=38

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