bostonbubble.com

[balor123]

What do you guys think about Question 1? Will it happen and what will the impact be on the Boston housing market?

My opinion is that it is likely to happen but won't be good for the state, though good for me since I rent and pay little property tax on my 1br apartment. Intrade has a page on the question.

[StallionMang]

I'm from NH (no income tax), I think it's bad and registered to vote against it.

[showgunx]

My perdiction is, it will pass by vote, but the state will hold the execution for a long time, or simply rejects it, just because the state desperately needs money right now. Even though I am still renting, I will vote no this. The money got to come from somewhere, if not from income tax, then it will come from future property tax increase, as well as fund cut from public facuilities.
Hey, how about voting yes on No.2 instead of No.1, 0.9oz of weed is all you need to deal with this harsh reality of the coming recession.

[john p]

www.votenoquestion1.com

I haven't delved into this one yet (no pun intended). I haven't chosen sides but I can pass this along....

[balor123]

But what will the impact on housing be?

[showgunx]

[Dorchester Grandma]

I know that this is changing the subject somewhat but please don't forget to VOTE YES ON QUESTION 3. This would end greyhound racing in MA. Dogs are mistreated, kept in cramped cages and euthanized when they are no longer making money for their owners.

[balor123]

How about we pass a law that dogs have to be treated well? Not that I have a opinion on the subject it just seems like the rational response to the problem.

[Dorchester Grandma]

Animal abuse of any kind should be punishable by much longer sentences than it is. A few months or a year in jail is not enough for lowlifes who would willfully hurt any creature.

I have an 8 year old litter of orphan kittens (4). I am especially careful about them scooting out at night right around Halloween, a dangerous time for the black cats in particular. Keep your cats safely indoors now.

[SamChady]

Although I am not the "topic police" in my opinion, we should keep stay on-topic, and a discussion of Question 1 is valid in regards to property values, but questions 2 and 3 are not.

Personally, I think it will lead to some increases in property taxes as the towns do get state monies for some things like special education. However, I don't see it changing the prices of housing as if your RE taxes go up but your income tax goes down, it will be a wash.

[john p]

I haven't played this out entirely in my mind but these are the things I'm thinking about.

You know how we have tax brackets for incomes for Federal Taxes, the town's property tax is almost like this:

If you live in an expensive property, you pay more property tax. Now if you have six kids in a 1,200 square foot cape and put a big demand on a school system, you pay less than the Al and Tipper Gore's who live in a 10,000 square foot house even though they don't have kids in the school system. It's kind of like saying a radio uses more electricity than a hair dryer because it is bigger. The usage is not considered and I think it should to some degree.

The flip side is someone paid for me to go to public schools, so I should have to pay for someone else.

Another element are these "unfunded mandates". For example, the State says that each town has to provide "x,y,z" but doesn't fund it. Special Education is one of these.

Lastly, we have these Chapter 70 laws that relate to school funding and they have formulas to determine the State's contribution to each community. They also have Chapter 90 for state roads and there are accounts earmarked for each community and the Highway Departments of each town spend or are involved with some of this money. My feeling is that this Question would throw a money wrench into the balance of all these formulas. Maybe it is not the worst thing because let's face it, they haven't tweaked these formulas along the way and many don't reflect the fundamentals of reality.

I look at leadership like this: some things need tweaking, so you tune them, some rules are written well but aren't enforced so the problem is enforcement, and lastly some things are totally screwed up and you need reform. A good leader knows when to exercise each of these approaches. I was afraid of Sarah Palin because she might be a bull in a china shop in an area that needed some fine tuning. But I'm also afraid of having a leader like Obama who votes "Present" to step in and have the backbone to reform something. His go-along/get-along record doesn't align with the sweeping change he speaks of.

Question 1 might just put all these rules and balances in a blender and force us to reform and rethink everything. It might just be shuffling the deck and that might be just what we need. However, if we have the same dealers handliing the cards we might be less protected without the legislation that will now be shredded.

As you can see, my thoughts need more time to cook.

[balor123]

I'm thinking that there will be less of a spread in house prices. More expensive houses will pay a heavier burden of taxes and will have to come down in price more than cheaper houses.

[john p]

I think it will create more of a disparity between rich and poor towns as well.

You know State taxes on top of Federal Taxes make a big deal. Take Florida, they have this Homestead Act and people who own an identical house to their neighbor might pay double the taxes if they purchased it more recently. This policy was put into place almost as a protectionism against transplants from up North.

I mean at least the State Income Tax was not a graduated model like property taxes or Federal Income Taxes. If you plow the State Income Tax amount into a graduated real estate model, you're really redistributing wealth.

Some old curmudgeon told me that it may be used to get old people to move out of their homes.

What stinks for me is that nobody ever gave me a break or hand out and I had to live in squalor for a long time. I didn't complain because I knew my hard work would pay off one day. I mean if you don't like your situation in life, you've got to be prepared to make some changes and work hard. I mean lazy people now are voting their own interest and want to just be a parasite on those that succeed. That's not the America I want to live in. Think about the people that come to America to work hard to succeed. Imagine the cockroaches that will want to come here if we start giving out free money.

Imagine the cost/benefit of renting to own if the property owners have to pay the freight?