Free Talk Live

North Dakota voters resoundingly defeated an attempt to abolish the state’s property taxes Tuesday and were set to allow the University of North Dakota to rename its controversial mascot, which critics say denigrates Native Americans. More than 70% of voters rejected a grass-roots effort to eliminate state property taxes, according to unofficial returns, even though North Dakota has a budget surplus that exceeds $1 billion, in part due to an oil boom. More than 27,000 residents had signed a petition to get the measure on Tuesday’s ballot.

"Why pay taxes?" asked Fred Phillips, who owes more than $2,600 on his home on an east-side block where five owners paid 2011 taxes. "Why should I send them taxes when they aren't supplying services? It is sickening. … Every time I see the tax bill come, I think about the times we called and nobody came."

“I would like to be able to know that my home, no matter what happens to my income or my life, is not going to be taken away from me because I can’t pay a tax,” said Susan Beehler, one in a group of North Dakotans who have pressed for an amendment to the state’s Constitution to end the property tax. They argue that the tax is unpredictable, inconsistent, counter to the concept of property ownership and needless in a state that, thanks in part to wildly successful oil drilling, finds itself in the rare circumstance of carrying budget reserves.

Former mayor now elderly may lose home for non payment of overdue property taxes. Home to be auctioned on city hall steps. Community comes to aid.

It's legal. But that doesn't mean it's fair, said homeowner Marilynn Alexander, who lives on Fairmount next door to one of Cusimano's rentals. The landlord owed $26,200 in taxes and other fees on the bungalow, but bought it back in October for $1,051. "He shouldn't be able to get away with that," said Alexander, a 57-year-old laundry worker who said she scrapes together every year her $1,500 in property taxes at the house where she's lived for 20 years. "That's not a fair break to anybody else out here."

Pennsylvania: http://www.montgomerynews.com/articles/2012/05/03/perkasie_news_herald/o... Pennsylvania: http://www.observer-reporter.com/or/break11/05-02-2012-property-tax Colorado: http://www.denverpost.com/legislature/ci_20349434/colorado-ballot-propos... Texas: http://blogs.star-telegram.com/politex/2012/05/former-texas-gubernatoria...

Livonia might charge its residents a 1% administrative fee to collect their property taxes, beginning with the December tax bill.

Another manipulation in the whole property taxes equal theft scheme.

A Georgia resident who has been an organic farmer for years is now facing $5000 dollars in fines for growing too many vegetables on his OWN land. That’s right.