New property tax bill- Holy CRAP!!

[Reziac]

I look at current school systems and think, "If you fire all the needless administrators, you'd have a surplus."

Well, if the State Revenuers want our very own Prop13 on the ballot, they're goin' about it the right way....

[Shuffler]

Kalispell took a lesson from The Fed: in 2020, the City dropped impact fees for developers by 50%.

The Flathead is "open for business" and the secret is out.

Meanwhile we're all dealing with inflation across the board .... food, fuel, insurance, taxes, everything. Not going away.

Kalispell hasn't brought impact fees back up, so the people shoulder the burden of the side effects from "progress".

Soon we'll have a larger crisis with illegal immigrants - and our taxes will go up again.

https://realnewsmontana.com/ixp/990/...ywwqxDH7lBRk61

[Reziac]

Inflation as officially calculated does not include food or energy.

The real-life, what-you-pay-from-your-wallet inflation rate totals around 33% over the past three years. How do I know this?

The thing to track is house-brand dog food. (Eg. Tractor Supply's "Retriever Hi Protein" brand, which is Purina Hi Pro by another name, bought bulk direct from Mars Inc. Walmart's "Ol' Roy" is the same product.) It's the most pure window into the commodities market you can get -- a broad spectrum of straight-up surplus and processing waste from the human food chain, the energy to process and transport it, and has only retail markup, no distribution markup. (The shelf price of most dog food includes several layers of distributor markup, and that can be most of the shelf price. Science Diet, for which I have seen the mandated distributor-markup schedule with my own eyes, triples in price from factory to shelf.)

Through 2020 it averaged $20/50 pounds, occasionally dropping to $19/50 pounds or spiking to $22/50 pounds.

Last fall it peaked at $32/50 pounds, tho has since graciously declined to $29/50 pounds.

I haven't seen this kind of vertical increase since the Carter years, when the price of such dog food doubled, then tripled, along with the price of fuel.

When the pallet price jumps from $400 to $600, you notice that a whole lot more than you do a few bucks on one bag at the pet store.

* * *

There was recently a Supreme Court decision that may change how impact fees are figured and applied... basically they said you can't apply an arbitrary tax and call it a fee just because. (This was in response to Bay area development fees, which have now hit something like $300k for a condo, never mind a house.)

.

[North Beach Person]

Originally Posted by Threerun

No sales tax in Montana. Study on newer residents show a lot of their income comes from investments, which are disproportionally taxed lower than other forms of revenue. Pretty much the burden lies on homeowners and wage earners.

I didn't know that about sales tax.

As for a lower tax rate on investments, that's true. But if those people become residents, instead of weekenders, that income tax is still a net gain (well, until you factor in the increased cost of services for them, like police, fire, EMS, "amenities", etc.).

I'm not saying I necessarily agree with the above but that's the rationale that's used.

I started to have a real issue with our local business people towards the end of my time in elective office. It wasn't so much that some of them were dumber than a box of rocks or that all they did was complain (an example of a complaint would be whining that the Town didn't do enough to attract people to come and spend money and then, when we did have events, they'd complain that they were too busy and sold too much stuff). No, my problem was somewhat two fold, although related.

The owners didn't live on Town, unlike when I started in office in the 1980s, so we didn't get a piece of their personal income tax (no business income tax, that all goes to the State) and, since most of them were one man/woman shops we didn't get any income tax form employees either.

So, at the end of the day the only revenue we got from most of the businesses was property taxes (which get paid anyway) and a minimal amount, less than $500, for business licenses. All while the Town is providing parking, law enforcement, trash pickup for public trash cans (and some of those bastards would put their business trash in a public can to avoid paying for a trash service), events to draw people to Town, etc.

[Threerun]

Originally Posted by Reziac

Inflation as officially calculated does not include food or energy.

.

Not exactly. Core inflation excludes food and energy. CPI (Consumer Price Index) includes food and transportation. Adjustments to SS COLA are based on CPI. The Core rate strips out food and energy because they can be volatile based on market and conditions- so monetary policy is based on Core as it is a more stable ‘big picture’,

[Reziac]

Originally Posted by Threerun

Not exactly. Core inflation excludes food and energy. CPI (Consumer Price Index) includes food and transportation. Adjustments to SS COLA are based on CPI. The Core rate strips out food and energy because they can be volatile based on market and conditions- so monetary policy is based on Core as it is a more stable ‘big picture’,

I know that's the theory, but however they're doing it, it's bloody disconnected from reality.

[Threerun]

Originally Posted by Reziac

I know that's the theory, but however they're doing it, it's bloody disconnected from reality.

Not really. The CPI is fairly accurate and more ‘real time’ albeit on a National scale. I understand Core is more functional from a monetary policy standpoint.

You may feel differently because there are regional differences. Taxes, fuel, groceries and other goods are cheaper in WV (where I moved from) than MT. That’s just a fact of regional differences.

[Reziac]

Originally Posted by Threerun

Not really. The CPI is fairly accurate and more ‘real time’ albeit on a National scale. I understand Core is more functional from a monetary policy standpoint.

You may feel differently because there are regional differences. Taxes, fuel, groceries and other goods are cheaper in WV (where I moved from) than MT. That’s just a fact of regional differences.

Speaking from here in Montana, where it's about 20% cheaper to live than it was in California... prices still went up 35% in the past 3 years, and that wasn't fluctuation, it was a steady progression. But according to the government, I'm imagining how much more it now costs me to buy the same stuff.

I think the problem is that inflation has been officially defined in the service of "monetary policy" instead of in terms of realworld effects.

[Threerun]

Originally Posted by Reziac

Speaking from here in Montana, where it's about 20% cheaper to live than it was in California... prices still went up 35% in the past 3 years, and that wasn't fluctuation, it was a steady progression. But according to the government, I'm imagining how much more it now costs me to buy the same stuff.

I think the problem is that inflation has been officially defined in the service of "monetary policy" instead of in terms of realworld effects.

You nor I are imagining things. It is more expensive here. It was 30% more here than WV when we moved here in 2010. Less dense population, transport costs, inflation on top- it is much more expensive. Sprinkle on top property taxes, energy costs with a weak kneed PSC- we’re hit hard.

But CPI does tell a National tale.

[Baby B]

https://www.ktvq.com/news/montana-ne...property-taxes