To the editor:
After reading Mr. Reber's comments on taxes, he definitely doesn't understand how taxes affect seniors. If he lived next door to me, he would be paying three times the amount he currently pays in property tax for rural Leavenworth County. Senior citizens in Lawrence who own an affordable home have found the appraised value of that home has doubled or tripled. That is where the problem starts.
It took two incomes to buy our home for $114,000, and in 12 years, with the same square footage, it now appraises at $190,000. This appraised value is of no financial gain to seniors until one of two things happens: they sell or die. By the end of 2006, our property taxes will have almost tripled. Some seniors have the financial ability to pay more in property taxes; others do not. It sickens me to think of an elderly person selling their home for property taxes they couldn't afford to pay.
The Kansas Legislature should step up to the plate and protect senior citizens with a property tax cap. With today's economy and high taxes, small businesses are destined to fail because people can't afford to shop there. Maybe Lawrence/Douglas County should not have passed up the opportunity a few years ago to have a casino. Local companies that could have provided services to the casino lost an opportunity to grow their business. The casino would have brought people into Lawrence. High taxes are turning people away from Lawrence and its great schools.
Betty Henderson,
Lawrence
Comments
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KS (anonymous) says…
Nobody should have to sell their home because of "high taxes", especially a senior. It is wrong, wrong, wrong and wrong. Unfortunately the greed of our local and state governments prevail.
paladin (anonymous) says…
Wrong has little to do with human interaction these days, except, maybe on Sunday morning. Right is defined by how much wealth and power you have. However its obtained is irrelevant, as long as you don't get publicly found out or caught in the act. If you're poor, you are of little value in this world. If you're old, and have no potential for profiting anyone, and poor, you are of even less value. Your worth as a person and as a member of this society is assessed by how much you "own" and how much you have and how much others can get from you. This is a fine kettle of fish we, as a people, we've gotten ourselves into. Our humanity is in the balance. I hate being cynical, but the Truth is the Truth. Our future appears very dim.
Jamesaust (anonymous) says…
And so, as a prudent adult, you sat down and did some financial planning, and set out a schedule for paying property taxes, including the increases, over these golden years, right?
It is astounding that someone can arrive at retirement, looking out 10, 20, 30+ into the future and not have it dawn on them that property values, and therefore taxes, will rise and rise.
pay your fair share!
Jamesaust (anonymous) says…
I would note only further that the described situation is unlike a more rare situation when unforeseen circumstances create a property tax dilemma. Locals may remember an elderly couple that had a bit of a rat-trap house near the Target development (I believe eventually Douglas County Bank built on the parcel at Iowa and 31st). The property was reclassified as 'commercial' and taxes went up like 300% in a year. While on one hand they or their heirs were laughing all the way to the bank, they did have an immediate problem with paying the high taxes on a fixed income. As suggested, a HELOC would easily have solved this "problem," which was really a "windfall." (Note: they didn't write to the LJW complaining about how unfair it was that they made out like bandits.)