On 11/30/2017 10:20 AM, Ed Pawlowski wrote:
On 11/30/2017 8:28 AM, Frank wrote:

One son's father-in-law in lower Delaware has a house the size of mine
but property taxes are half.Â* I asked him why that might be and he
says, "What party is in charge in New Castle County"?Â* He's right.

When I first got in need of new deck I discovered all the rigamarole
needed with permits and inspections.Â* In Sussex County where he lives
there are none required.

That's a rather simplistic conclusion.Â* There are many differences other
than size of a house or land.Â* There are dozens of factors that
determine the taxes.Â* Compare the two towns or taxing authorities to
determine: cost of operating schools, street lighting, police and fire
services, snow removal, trash collection, recreation and parks, and a
boatload of others.

Then look at the potential income to the town.Â* Single family
residences, commercial properties, industrial properties, personal
property or car taxes, fees for services.

When I lived in PA there was a small town with high taxes and mostly
well to do residents.Â* The residents were happy to pay it because they
wanted a lot of services and did not want any industry moving in.

Best thing you can do is attend town meetings and make your voice heard
if you don't like the spending.

That's right but both of us live on one acre lots with well and septic
and no municipal services but his county taxes are lower but so are his
school taxes. More retired people live there so there are less kids.
The county is starting to attract a lot of NJ retirees because taxes are
outrageous there.

We have developments here straddling the DE/PA border and an identical
house on the PA side will have 2X the DE property tax. School taxes in
PA are higher but schools are better but still out of proportion.

Someone was saying that the high tax states do not have any better
services than the low tax states. The high tax states have too many
state employees, higher state pensions and benefits.