Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Property Tax Cut for Seniors

This is an awful bill. Its unfair and fiscally irresponsible. Its a prime example of the pols using our money to further their carreers at our cost.
Note the real effects of this bill, it won't help seniors who are too poor to own property, or those seniors who have sold their property and moved into retirement comminities or in with family. Moreover, some who will get the tax cuts won't need it. Some of the individuals whose taxes are being lowered are millionares. Most people over seventy's income is passive. Many people who have more than a million dollars of assets have an income of less than $75,000 per year. It they have invested intelligently, they are making money that is not counted as income (For example stocks are real estate that have appreciated, but have not been sold). (Moreover 7.5 percent is not a bad rate of return on safe income producing assets in this low interest environment).
But why are we only helping seniors? Are their not other groups who are equally affected by the high cost of living? For example, the poor and the disabled? Why is it more important to keep seniors from moving out of the County than these people?
Finally, this loss of revenue is going to come from somewhere, right now it looks like it will be coming from public employee's retirement funds.

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