I really hate this damn country...

[spidey07]

Originally posted by: PrinceofWands

I would, if the void wouldn't be filled with Republicans. It'd be like getting rid of the rats to be left with the fleas and ticks.

So run for appraiser?

Seriously, if it's as bad as you make it out to be there is nothing stopping you from running. If the county is small all you have to do is bring up this one issue and follow the steps. You don't need TV time and radio time is cheap, flyers should be enough.

Start talking to others in your community, suggest that you want to stop this nonsense and want to get on the ballot.

I'm not being insulting at all, rather encouraging - if you don't like it then provide a common sense solution that your fellow residents can support. You'd be amazed at what can happen.

This is what I LOVE about this country, you can run. If you want to start off small and do country district rep then do it.

 

[JS80]

Originally posted by: spidey07

Originally posted by: PrinceofWands
Which is why this post was titled: I really hate this damn country... and not 'I really hate Cowlitz County WA'. My hatred is about the mindset this allows this abuse, and encourages a love of money.

Yep, just as I thought and JS80 rightfully predicted.

You have an infestation of Democrats. You've got a whole damn swarm of them. The only real way to get rid of them is to build a democrat smashing machine and bore right to the heart of them and play Slayer at full blast. That will run them out.

Better yet, nuke them from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

2006 election results for Cowlitz County

 

[PrinceofWands]

Originally posted by: spidey07

Originally posted by: PrinceofWands

I would, if the void wouldn't be filled with Republicans. It'd be like getting rid of the rats to be left with the fleas and ticks.

So run for appraiser?

Seriously, if it's as bad as you make it out to be there is nothing stopping you from running. If the county is small all you have to do is bring up this one issue and follow the steps. You don't need TV time and radio time is cheap, flyers should be enough.

Start talking to others in your community, suggest that you want to stop this nonsense and want to get on the ballot.

I'm not being insulting at all, rather encouraging - if you don't like it then provide a common sense solution that your fellow residents can support. You'd be amazed at what can happen.

This is what I LOVE about this country, you can run. If you want to start off small and do country district rep then do it.

I'm sure it's really not that bad...especially compared to other areas. But it is bad for this area for someone like me who will never make much money.

I'll file a dispute and see what happens. May contact the mayer and other politicians just cause. If it happens again I probably will do something as extreme as you suggest.

 

[Fritzo]

Why are you appraising your home so much?

 

[PrinceofWands]

Originally posted by: Fritzo
Why are you appraising your home so much?

Sry, I mispoke in that. I'm not having it appraised, the county assessor is assessing it at that value.

 

[Special K]

Originally posted by: PrinceofWands

Originally posted by: SagaLore
I'm sorry that you don't like your investment in home equity.

That's a personal view, not a neutral fact. If you do not ever sell a home, it has no monetary value. It is merely a place to live. I will never move, so its monetary value is relevant only as it pertains to tax rate.

This is a good point. Home equity is worthless unless you plan to sell the house. You can borrow money against it in the form of a HEL or HELOC, but I wouldn't exactly consider that a good arbitrage opportunity.

 

[TehMac]

I hear Georgia is having a grand time with their real estate, perhaps you should move over there.

 

[Wheezer]

You do realize that regardless if you rent or own you are going to pay property tax right?

So you might as well suck it up and at least enjoy the fact you have your own home where no one but your wife can tell you what do to.

 

[PrinceofWands]

Originally posted by: Wheezer
You do realize that regardless if you rent or own you are going to pay property tax right?

So you might as well suck it up and at least enjoy the fact you have your own home where no one but your dog can tell you what do to.

edited to better reflect my reality.

 

[Bignate603]

I would fight it. It sounds like your town is trying to increase tax revenue.

 

[TipsyMcStagger]

Originally posted by: PrinceofWands
This has always been a super cheap area. $10/hr is a damn good salary here. Unemployment goes between 8 and 18%. Just six years ago our house was appraised at $110,000. It was reappraised every 5-10 years, usually going up maybe 5-10% each time. Enter real-estate speculation.

Two years ago they appraised our house (with no cause) for $150k. Last year they did it again and it was $170k. We just got another one for $190k.

This is all with no improvements in home/property or the city. In fact the city is doing far worse than it has been. There is no possible rational explanation for this other than speculation/exploitation.

This is a family home, it will never be sold. The only thing increasing value does is rape us in taxes.

I hate this damn country.

Did you mean country or county? Assessments are done at the county level.

 

[PrinceofWands]

Originally posted by: TipsyMcStagger

Originally posted by: PrinceofWands
This has always been a super cheap area. $10/hr is a damn good salary here. Unemployment goes between 8 and 18%. Just six years ago our house was appraised at $110,000. It was reappraised every 5-10 years, usually going up maybe 5-10% each time. Enter real-estate speculation.

Two years ago they appraised our house (with no cause) for $150k. Last year they did it again and it was $170k. We just got another one for $190k.

This is all with no improvements in home/property or the city. In fact the city is doing far worse than it has been. There is no possible rational explanation for this other than speculation/exploitation.

This is a family home, it will never be sold. The only thing increasing value does is rape us in taxes.

I hate this damn country.

Did you mean country or county? Assessments are done at the county level.

Read the thread? The county is merely reflecting what is happening all over the country, due to manipulation that is reinforced nationally (if not globally).

 

[spidey07]

Originally posted by: PrinceofWands
Read the thread? The county is merely reflecting what is happening all over the country, due to manipulation that is reinforced nationally (if not globally).

This has been going on as long has homo sapiens have been around. More resources = better.

All species exhibit this behavior it's just in our human world money does really mean resources. If you were a coyote your hunting grounds would be the same thing. I am truly sorry that you don't like the natural order of life.

You can fight it all you want, but this is the natural order of life.

 

[PrinceofWands]

Originally posted by: spidey07

Originally posted by: PrinceofWands
Read the thread? The county is merely reflecting what is happening all over the country, due to manipulation that is reinforced nationally (if not globally).

This has been going on as long has homo sapiens have been around. More resources = better.

All species exhibit this behavior it's just in our human world money does really mean resources. If you were a coyote your hunting grounds would be the same thing. I am truly sorry that you don't like the natural order of life.

You can fight it all you want, but this is the natural order of life.

But humans are humans because we can overcome nature, even our own. It's well past time we exert control over the desire to accumulate greater and greater unnecessary wealth.

 

[BoomerD]

Originally posted by: PrinceofWands
I hate this damn country.

Feel free to leave at any time.
There are airplanes that go to a myriad of places that are FAR worse than here, and those airplanes leave many, many times each day...(and AFAIC, none go to anywhere BETTER than here)

I LOVE my country, but I FEAR my government.

 

[BoomerD]

OP, I'm a former Warshingtonian...grew up in Spokane. I'm happy as hell to be in Kahleeforneeya. While many government agencies are lamenting Prop 13, the only homeowners who dislike it are the ones who bought during the peak of the bubble. We bought our house 10 years ago and paid ~$130K but some of my neighbors paid over $350K and thus pay nearly triple the property tax I do...for the same basic house.
With the current downturn, there has been a stampede to have their property re-assessed to lower their value...and lower their taxes.

Originally posted by: skywhr
If you hate this country so much, sell your house for the over inflated price and GTFO!

:thumbsup:

Originally posted by: hiromizu

Originally posted by: spidey07
You want to know why you should LOVE your country?

Because you can dispute it and if it's out of line with other real appraisals (not done by the county) then you don't have to pay the high one. All you have to do is dispute it if you think it's out of line.

You know that's exactly why I don't like the US. You don't have to deal with that kind of BS in my country. In my country if you screw up, you apologize, correct and end yourself.

hiromizu, if this isn't YOUR country and you dislike it so much here, kindly leave!

We have plenty of people who WANT to be here, who think that the USA is far better than the place they're from...I'm sure lots of them would be happy to take your place.

 

[Bignate603]

Originally posted by: spidey07

Originally posted by: PrinceofWands

I would, if the void wouldn't be filled with Republicans. It'd be like getting rid of the rats to be left with the fleas and ticks.

So run for appraiser?

Seriously, if it's as bad as you make it out to be there is nothing stopping you from running. If the county is small all you have to do is bring up this one issue and follow the steps. You don't need TV time and radio time is cheap, flyers should be enough.

Start talking to others in your community, suggest that you want to stop this nonsense and want to get on the ballot.

I'm not being insulting at all, rather encouraging - if you don't like it then provide a common sense solution that your fellow residents can support. You'd be amazed at what can happen.

This is what I LOVE about this country, you can run. If you want to start off small and do country district rep then do it.

My MIL actually did that. The appraiser had been over appraising houses like crazy, but her house had a ton of work done on it (addition, pool, etc) and hadn't had it's appraisal changed in 10 years. My MIL did her homework and found all this out and took it to the town. Now my MIL is the appraiser.

 

[Svnla]

$10/hr is good salary? And I thought down South here, the pay is low.

The OP profile says he is from Washington state. I heard that Seattle/Tacoma area is very darn expensive to live <housing speaking>.

 

[CPA]

Originally posted by: PrinceofWands

Originally posted by: Baloo
What happened after you filed a dispute after the last two appraisels?

Wish I would have known about it then. 8-( Only have 30 days to file, so now it's too late of course. I honestly wouldn't have disputed the first one, just because it would have been somewhat reasonable to consider the area undervalued (if minimally) up till then.

What angers me most is the annual increase, not the fact that it's going up at all. If it were continuing to go up 1-2.5% like it had been I probably wouldn't mind at all. But 10-15% annually during a major economic downturn with no improvements???

Maybe you should hate yourself for being a homeowner who doesn't know the processes around home appraisals.

 

[CPA]

Originally posted by: PrinceofWands

Originally posted by: spidey07

Originally posted by: PrinceofWands
The tax rate is fixed year to year by the government (usually including a public vote to allow any increases). However the value of the home is fixed by the county assessor and apparently not always honestly...since my home has not doubled in value in the last 3 years.

So like already mentioned, if the people don't approve a rate increase the only way the government can change the amount collected is to alter the appraised value of the home. So far this appears to be the most logical explanation for my situation.

This is going on across a lot of local and state government because of their budget shortfalls.

Some guy (generally the appraiser so he can move up) has this idea:
"You see, all we have to do is appraise the homes higher. Most everybody will just moan about it, but pay anyway - it's like FREE MONEY! And for the very few that do follow their appropriate channels, they'll pay what they did last year (or the proper amount based on the real property value) so we still get our money! We're talking 10s of millions!

HEAR, HEAR!
BRILLIANT!
AYE!
"

Which is why this post was titled: I really hate this damn country... and not 'I really hate Cowlitz County WA'. My hatred is about the mindset this allows this abuse, and encourages a love of money.

it doesn't encourage a love of money, it encourages the upkeep of all of the social programs upkeep that you and your fellow state and county citizens were probably clamoring for over the last 10-15 years. This is what you get when government gets too big.

 

[AccruedExpenditure]

You're welcome to leave anytime

 

[thepd7]

Originally posted by: Vonkhan
I'm not American ... but I think America's pretty cool (except for its current ruler)

The fact that you called our President "ruler" tells me all I need to know about your knowledge of America.

 

[BoomerD]

Originally posted by: thepd7

Originally posted by: Vonkhan
I'm not American ... but I think America's pretty cool (except for its current ruler)

The fact that you called our President "ruler" tells me all I need to know about your knowledge of America.

No kidding, he's not a ruler...a ruler has 12 inches, and Bush just doesn't measure up...
You MIGHT call him a dick-tater...

 

[PrinceofWands]

Originally posted by: BoomerD
OP, I'm a former Warshingtonian...grew up in Spokane. I'm happy as hell to be in Kahleeforneeya. While many government agencies are lamenting Prop 13, the only homeowners who dislike it are the ones who bought during the peak of the bubble. We bought our house 10 years ago and paid ~$130K but some of my neighbors paid over $350K and thus pay nearly triple the property tax I do...for the same basic house.
With the current downturn, there has been a stampede to have their property re-assessed to lower their value...and lower their taxes.

Originally posted by: skywhr
If you hate this country so much, sell your house for the over inflated price and GTFO!

:thumbsup:

Originally posted by: hiromizu

Originally posted by: spidey07
You want to know why you should LOVE your country?

Because you can dispute it and if it's out of line with other real appraisals (not done by the county) then you don't have to pay the high one. All you have to do is dispute it if you think it's out of line.

You know that's exactly why I don't like the US. You don't have to deal with that kind of BS in my country. In my country if you screw up, you apologize, correct and end yourself.

hiromizu, if this isn't YOUR country and you dislike it so much here, kindly leave!

We have plenty of people who WANT to be here, who think that the USA is far better than the place they're from...I'm sure lots of them would be happy to take your place.

Yeah, was reading about that after being prompted in this thread. VERY interesting piece of legislation. I lived in the republik for 6 months though, so you can't make me go back. Very few worse states in the union imo (and I've been in almost all of them).

 

[PrinceofWands]

Originally posted by: Svnla
$10/hr is good salary? And I thought down South here, the pay is low.

The OP profile says he is from Washington state. I heard that Seattle/Tacoma area is very darn expensive to live <housing speaking>.

This county was entirely resource based...specifically timber/pulp (well, for a short time aluminum). Now that the industry is pretty much dead there's nothing left here. 30k people in the town and hardly a job worth talking about.