The problem & the solution to the American Nightmare
The American Dream for most is a home, a steady job, maybe a couple of kids, and even a dog. Owing our own land is a joy coveted by nearly everyone since time began. Land and a home we call our own have been at the very center of the American Dream since the pilgrims landed and began to build.
Well, those bygone days are something to compare to nowadays as our own property taxes rise at an increasing rate, even driving some from their ‘little piece of heaven’ and shattering the long-sought American Dream.
There is a problem: How far we have fallen, to even tolerate let alone endorse such a system as one which places all American homeowners in perpetual debt. Yes, even the affluent are held in the bondage of State and County imposed debt. This debt [or rent] is the recurring property taxes all must pay under penalty of foreclosure, eviction, and even sale of their own home, land, and real estate property.
In this day and age we see more and more often the scene of the elderly, the infirm, and the handicapped among us being evicted from their homes. Once ensconced in the comfort of their living rooms or settled peacefully on the front porch on a sunny day, they find themselves forced to move in with relatives, friends, or even relocate to homeless shelters.
This is worse than mere injustice. This is a crime against the very people to whom we owe everything. The veterans and the elderly have given us the world we now enjoy [for better or for worse] and we owe them an opportunity to stay in their homes despite the county or state baying for the blood of more real estate and income.
There is a solution: Elimination of property taxes, entirely, is the only viable and just solution. It is also a workable solution. By replacing this onerous tax with a sales tax, the horrors of state ordered repossession of American’s homes cease forever.
By instituting a one-time sales tax of 6% [to match current Idaho State Sales Tax] would be imposed every time a property changes ownership or hands among permanent occupants.
With the average Treasure Valley home changing hands every 6 years, this would afford a tremendous income to that government forever hungry for more and more of our tax dollars and hard-earned pay to fill the bottomless pit of their incompetence.
The first step to the solution: It would take a state legislator or group of legislators with the courage, compassion, and foresight to draft a bill to be presented to the house for a vote. This bill might include a few of my suggestions such as the following:
- The 6% collection would be divided between State, County, and Municipal governments according to their need [or avaricious desire] which would eliminate the need for a recurring property tax.
- A provision in the bill would prohibit any additional taxation of any kind relating to real property including farmland, industrial property, residential property, commercial property … and the list goes on. This would, properly worded, prohibit the greedy robber-barons of the School Districts, County Commissions, City Leadership, and State Heads ability to further rape the people beyond raising the State Sales Tax.
- A provision requiring 2/3 majority of both houses and signature by the governor to change or alter in any way those provisions of the bill aimed at protecting the very people whom they supposedly serve.
The final step to the solution: An amendment to the Idaho State Constitution must be presented to further tie the greedy hands of those in our state government who would undo that which the new law has done.
