I contacted my county commissioners about taxes and they agreed

[NorthCarolinaLiberty]

All the houses in my county were recently revalued by the county tax ticks. I looked up all our neighbors and the figures were all over the place. I called the losers at the county office. They gave me some blah blah blah.

Our house, in particular, was revalued in line with inflation, so I really had little basis for arguing my own increase. The county tax guy said people can appeal, and I guess some do. I don't "appeal" anything. I was asking about the appeals board and who pays them and all that. They get paid by the county, so I told the tax collector that's like a chicken appealing to the fox for mercy. Guess he didn't like all my questions, so the asshole ended up raising our valuation, upon which I called him back. He said there was a "mistake," so he lowered it.

After all this, I contacted all the county commissioners, who review the rate every few years. I reasoned a rate (percentage) should never increase because that's the entire purpose of a rate. It's like how restaurant tipping went from 15% to 20% while ignoring that restaurant price increases automatically raise the waitresses tips.

The upshot is that the commissioners unanimously agreed not to raise the rate. One commissioner said they are all against most of these taxes.

Well, I don't know if I did my civic duty or what, but it was better than having a bunch of tax happy politicians do the opposite

 

[Warrior_of_Freedom]

just be happy you're not paying 850+ dollars a month in property tax in NJ

 

[Brian4Liberty]

They get paid by the county, so I told the tax collector that's like a chicken appealing to the fox for mercy. Guess he didn't like all my questions, so the asshole ended up raising our valuation, upon which I called him back. He said there was a "mistake," so he lowered it.

That type of vindictive behavior is not uncommon. Almost standard operating procedure. You complain or ask questions, you will get new or increased fines, violations or rates. And often there is no recourse.

 

[oyarde]

i contested one once it was listed by the county as about twice what it was worth , they did lower it 20k which was still nearly twice what it was worth . it was a rental and eventually i sold it cheap about a decade later to the guy that had been renting it for that time . they called me a couple times about the price i sold it for . i told them since it belongs to me i can sell it for whatever i like just like they value them for whatever tax they would like to collect and that i had sold the other two i had in that county too in the last decade and wouldnt be buying any others and advised anyone who asked me against it . they left me alone after that .