Bob

No, that's regarding children that must have a seat belt, adults don't.

It's why they don't get federal funding for road repairs and have terrible roads.

Steve_

So that article I read in the paper was wank then: State Seat Belt Laws

Pulaski

With respect to seatbelt laws in NH, that article describes exactly what Bob described, and what I understand the law to be, and therefore your previous post is incorrect.

Steve_

Says clothes and food are exempt: http://www.state.vt.us/tax/pdf.word....rix%202012.pdf

Exempting clothes is unusual, haven't come across that before. Anyway I only bought food and clothes, so that was the reason I didn't get charged.

Steve_

Hence the reason I said the article was wank... and posted a link to accurate information...

Pulaski

You posted an article earlier in this thread? ..... If so, that wasn't clear- I thought you were rubbishing the article in the post of yours that I quoted above.

Yorkieabroad

Bit of a generalization for such a huge state - to clarify, East Texas IS subtropical. West Texas is semi arid prairie. Coastal East Texas (including Houston, where we are) has about double the annual rainfall of London (in inches) although, like many tropical/subtropical climates, it arrives in large volumes, so it probably has significantly less rainy days than London.

Property taxes here vary considerably depending on location. Our neighbours youngest kid has just gone off to college, so they are moving out of the school district, where taxes are pushing 4% and have bought a small holding about 10 miles away where taxes are slightly below 1%. Can't blame them!

scrubbedexpat091

Not like a home owner does, rent may indirectly go towards taxes but your tax bill alone is more then my rent is. Plus add in the fact you have to replace and repair everything when owning, where renting the landlord does...I can see the possible long term benefit to owning, but short term renting seems to make more sense, and renting is the only option for more and more as houses become less affordable in more places.




I am not even sure my current place pays property tax, its run by a non-profit housing authority on behalf of the government who also has a financial stake in the building.

Pulaski

With respect to Jsmth's circumstances, houses/ homes are affordable for many in most places but often tenants make bad choices, spending money on beer and or cigarettes, or on vehicles. If you drive through the poor parts of the town nearest to my home you will see Caddies, Lexuses, BMWs, and Mercedes, and other prestige vehicles. Granted, they're not necessary new but they're still expensive to buy and maintain, .... and worth more than the vehicles I drive though I own my own house out of town, a house that is worth 4-6 times the rented houses in the poor parts of town. Sometimes it is a matter of the choices people make.

MsElui

our property tax is over 11k here in Tx.

Steve_

Well suffice to say if being hot in Florida is your problem, moving to Texas isn't going to solve it.

Pulaski

And your state income tax is ...... ?

Steve_

Every State has its tax downsides, that's the reason people move to Florida.

Oh I can't move to x, the sales tax is too high, they have an income tax, the property tax is too high, they have an estate tax, blah blah.

Hotscot

In two hours I'm moving to a drunken State

Martini night!
Hic!

Michael

The Case-Shiller home price index for Miami was about 280 before the recession and local governments were likely taxing homes to pay for education and local services as a percentage )mill rate) of home values then. During the recession, Florida was hit hard and the Miami index dropped to about 150 meaning that local governments would only get about 60% of the revenue if the mill rate remained the same. Although the index has risen to about 185, that is still well below the index before the recession. I suspect that most of the tax increase that you are seeing is to get local government revenues back to near pre-recession levels.

Many things determine the mill rate including the value of the homes in the area, amount and size of industry in the area that generates tax revenues, and expenditures for education and local services.

S&P/Case-Shiller 20-City Composite Home Price Index - S&P Dow Jones Indices