Property Taxes and Fees.

i have very low taxes where i live, which is nice because housing prices are still high.  BUT we have pretty high payroll and sales tax, so i'm sure it evens out.  my property taxes are less than $1,000 per year on a $170,000 townhouse.

i also pay a whopping $60/year property tax for my 10 year old celica.  my husband's 2 year old rav4 is about $100/year.

I guess ours is kind of expensive ($4283 this year, assessed value is $259,240). 

I am satisfied with how we're taken care of.   All of the regular stuff is fine, there's always a ton of road construction and we don't have toll roads (I never understand that about Chicago - why do the roads suck so much?).  I also make a lot of use out of the extra things like parks, libraries, etc.  I don't have kids, but I hear the schools are good.  

Fortunately the things I couldn't give a rip about, like the new Twins stadium, was paid for with sales tax (I believe). 

I've never heard about property tax on cars.  So, that's in addition to license and registration fees?

I'm satisfied with what I get for what I pay. The local school was just named the best in the state, and one of the top in the country according to the Washington Post. Meanwhile one district over is one of the worst in the state, if not the nation; is unable to pay bills and is closing magnet schools, one of the middle schools, firing hundreds of people, and in general is a complete wreck.

We don't pay taxes on personal property like cars, but I believe my mother does in Virginia.

I just happen to have my property tax statement in front of me.  Ours went up $500 dollars this year to $3644 on an assessed value of $344k.  Mostly that's because we're building a brand new high school which passed in the vote this past year.  That's the big issue around here right now, because it's really brought to the front the people who don't like paying taxes for something they don't use.  All the old folks are up in arms about it, whereas most of the younger parents are fine with it because we all have kids that will use the new school since the old one was falling apart.  One extreme case I know of is a guy here in town that owns tons of property, both commercial and residential lots, and he said the high school is costing him over $20,000/month in extra taxes on all his property.  Ouch.

We pay a "wheelage tax" in Washington Co. for vehicles kept on the property. (Ramsey and Hennepin do not, AFAIK)

I live in one of the expensive states, my total property tax is around $6500 on a house valued at $250k, in addition we have a high income tax rate and 8% sales tax.

My biggest issue with the property tax is that it's very biased towards the town/county/school.  They set the value of your house, this is supposed to be based on sales of comparable homes in your area.  The Assessor then makes adjustments for extras or downside to your home (though they never find a downside) that seem fairly arbitrary.  For example, my wrap around porch seems to be far more valuable than a house with just a front porch, though there aren't any comps to compare too, I doubt someone would pay much more for my house than one with just a regular front porch.  Of course we can challenge this assessment, however, the board is comprised of three members all of which are hired by the town.  It's not surprising that they took the side of the town Assessor over any homeowner that appealed.  The next step would be to go to small claims court, which of course is an added stop and I'm not sure would get you enough of a reduction to cover the cost of all the specialized appraisals you would need because just comparing to comps doesn't help with you have the additional items.

Our property taxes are split between the town, county and school.  Most of which seem to be fairly good with the money and services though there are things that I find kind of strange.  Once such thing would be that the school provides transportation to all students, not just those that live close to school and could walk, but those that live in the district that go to private schools as well.  They can ride the bus to the High School and then transfer to another bus which will drive them any where in the county to their private school.

Chris.

I noticed that our property gets re-assessed every year sometimes it goes up and sometimes it goes down. One of the things I have trouble with is that they can assess my property $20,000 below what we paid and our property taxes will still raise. The next year it will get assessed at $10,000 more than what we paid and they will still increase.So regardless of what my property is assessed at we usually still pay more. Now if your property is assessed at lower than what you paid shouldnt your property taxes fall? Even just a little instead of steadily increasing. Is this how they maintain property values? By fluctuating their assessments of property?

But what are you getting for your money? Your tax rate sounds similar to what I pay, extrapolating my home's assessed worth and what I pay, I am paying about $500 less than what you pay. I get a safe community, good great school district; there is a full calender of community events during the year (including my personal favorite - the parade and related festivities on the 4th of July, that gives me free entertainment for my houseguests at our annual party). When my wife and daughter had CD's stolen out of their cars from the driveway one night, the cops showed up, fingerprinted the cars, and actually caught the perps, who have been paying restitution in dribs and drabs since. In contrast, when my wife's car was broken into in broad daylight and the GPS stolen in the next town over while she was at work, the police would not even bother coming out to get fingerprints, and advised her if she wanted to file a claim to do so on-line, since the police force is too thinly stretched to deal with property crimes. 

If I got a high crime rate, high drop out rate, and poor municipal services, I would complain. But I think I get my money's worth.