Plan Would Let Seniors Work to Pay Taxes

[WhiteFeather]

Are your taxes too high? Fixed income to low? The government that spends your money like there is no tomorrow and waste large amounts for pet projects like gun control, now will let you work just to pay their “low” property taxes..... If you really own the property, why do you have to always pay taxes on it forever. If you paid taxes for the same home you lived in for 30 years shouldn’t you have finally paid your fair share and be tax free or is property taxes more like paying rent?.....

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php...show_article=1

Plan Would Let Seniors Work to Pay Taxes

GREENBURGH, N.Y. (AP) - Audrey Davison lives alone, gets a $620 Social Security check each month and worries about the sharply rising taxes on her four-bedroom house. Davison, 76, raised her family there and after 43 years, she really doesn't want to leave Greenburgh.
Greenburgh doesn't want her to leave, either.

The town is pushing a program that would let seniors work part-time, for $7 an hour, to help pay off some of their property taxes.

"People shouldn't have to sell their house, move away to a place with less taxes, leave behind their family and friends," said Town Supervisor Paul Feiner.

He envisions retired doctors mentoring schoolchildren, retired accountants helping with the town's finances, retired lawyers offering their services for a discount. But there are plenty of less-skilled jobs that need doing, he said.

"It's not like we're going to see grandma running the snowplow," he said. "There are lots of things people can do for the town and it wouldn't cost us that much to pay them."

The proposal has caused a stir in Greenburgh, a town of 90,000 in Westchester County, which has the nation's third-highest homeowner property taxes. The plan would be unusual if not unique in New York, but similar programs are considered successes in Colorado, Massachusetts, South Carolina and elsewhere.

Davison, who suffers from arthritis and sciatica and needs a walker to get around on her bad days, said she pays about $12,000 a year in property taxes—perhaps $2,000 to the town—and has already taken out a reverse mortgage to pay her bills.

Talking to Feiner last week at the town senior center, she said, "I would work as long as it was a job where I could sit."

"You could be a receptionist!" Feiner said. "You could greet people right here, when they come in."

"That I would love," Davison said.

Scott Parkin, spokesman for the National Council on Aging, said the program sounded interesting, as long as it wasn't limited to menial work. "It's certainly in line with what we stand for, keeping seniors involved in work or volunteering as a part of healthy aging," he said.

Boulder County, Colo., pioneered a tax workoff program in 1986 for residents over 60 and now has about 250 applicants for the fewer than 100 openings, said spokeswoman Barbara Halpin. The work done by the seniors includes landscaping, gathering climate data, clipping newspapers and staffing the courthouse information booth.

"Taxes aren't that high out here, so even at $7 an hour people can burn off their county taxes pretty quickly," Halpin said. She added that many stay in the program as volunteers after paying off their taxes.

In Concord, Mass., Maria Casey of the personnel department said about 10 seniors get $8.50 an hour to work at research, data entry and groundskeeping. The program, started in 1999, "allows seniors to be able to work and be involved in the community, and the town benefits by their work," she said.

Feiner is suggesting creating about 25 slots for seniors and letting them work off $500 or so a year. His proposal faces some obstacles. If the wages earned are to be tax-free and directly credited to the property tax bill, the state Legislature would have to approve. In addition, unions would have to be convinced that the program is no threat to their members' job security.

Feiner is hoping for at least a pilot program next year.

Eventually, he said, he would like to see the county and the local school districts adopt similar plans.

"If we got seniors working for the schools, there might be a more intergenerational feeling there," he said. "It might be easier to pass the school budgets."

Janet Goodman, a retired teacher and travel agent who was leading a knitting class at a Greenburgh community center, said paying the bills at her town house in Hartsdale, one of Greenburgh's seven villages, is "a constant struggle." She said she would gladly take part in a tax workoff program "as long as the work is interesting."

"You have to be creative," she said.

[P89]

WORK 'TILL YOU DIE! I thought we did away with slavery a loooong time ago.

[knight0334]

I've got a better idea.. how about do away with property taxes on houses that of "average" or less value. Only tax mansions and elaborate living places. Then bump up sales taxes a percent or two to compensate.

This Fee Simple property scheme is a crock of bullshit. We should have Allodial Titles to our lands and homes - with exception to housing that is far beyond simple requirements of life.

Now of course, "values" of property are relative to location. But a 20 room mansion should be taxed unless there is a massive family there. A simple home shouldn't be taxed.

[LorDiego01]

I always snicker at people who say "I own my home".

Stop paying your property taxes, and we'll see just how much of your home you own.

[knight0334]

I always snicker at people who say "I own my home".

Stop paying your property taxes, and we'll see just how much of your home you own.

Well... they do own the home, just not the land under it. lol

You can buy a house and move it to another state and the original state cant tax it. But they can still tax the land.

[awkx]

... If you really own the property, why do you have to always pay taxes on it forever? If you paid taxes for the same home you lived in for 30 years shouldn’t you have finally paid your fair share and be tax free or is property taxes more like paying rent?

Actually, I think property taxes are one of the more morally justifiable taxes, especially compared to the income tax. There is a strictly finite amount of land available in this country. How did people originally acquire ownership of this land? They simply took it and claimed it for themselves. And the gov't enforces that claim of ownership against other people.

In contrast, the income tax is ultimately a tax on the new wealth that you create. There is no fixed limit on the amount of wealth that a country can possess. By creating new wealth, you don't take away other people's wealth or even (directly) reduce their ability to create more wealth.

Also, property taxes are less instrusive than incomes taxes. The gov't already needs to know what land you own, in case of disputes about land boundaries. The income tax, however, requires you to release all kinds of private information to the government.

So, if one wants to look for a reason why these people can't afford their property taxes, I suggest starting with the federal income and Social Security taxes that they have paid over the years.

[ChamberedRound]

I love the title... the plan would "let" them work, as if they want to and someting is preventing them. The only thing that might prevent them from working is their age. These people don't WANT to work, they feel they HAVE to work just to keep what they've had for years!

[Mity2]

I always snicker at people who say "I own my home".

Well, home thats built on property, you do.
But property that house is built on? Now thats entirely different matter...

[GRoPA]

"It's not like we're going to see grandma running the snowplow," he said.

That kinda takes all of the fun out of the plan doesn't it?

(Insert creative picture by SoberByker here)

[DaveM55]

Time for a tea party?