"It costs the state" is the most backwards cucked way of looking at the fact that we are paying rent to the state for property we own, & which has gone up dramatically since 2019.
Taxes are not rent but rather payment for services we receive, schools being the largest recipient of tax dollars. Police and fire departments, parks and recreation, street maintenance, public health and transportation plus many others all take a bite of the tax dollars. Which ones do you want to cut? Please be specific.
What a nonsense straw man argument, paying for services not being used proportionally is robbery, paying tax on unrealized gains (increased property value) is criminal. Not being able to stay in your home after one retires is criminal. It’s spending taxpayers money with zero accountability, that’s the problem. Look at Brown County and Aberdeen budgets since 2015 until now, insane spending and population growth is flat.
Please be specific on which services must be cut. I have paid property taxes, starting in 1971, and don’t feel that I have been robbed. In 55 years I’ve only had to utilize police and fire departments three times. I’m damn glad they were there. My kids and now grandkids attended public schools and received/are receiving great education. I like the snow removal in the winter and the pools in the summer. Visits to parks are too many to count. If you want to only pay when you receive a benefit check out the cost of an ambulance ride. Unless you are a top earner that ride will probably be well beyond your property taxes bill.
Bib, surely you aren't making the case that none of these gov't agencies (particularly public schools) can control their budgets, or that property taxes haven't skyrocketed since 2019.
Chris: Bob was making the point that property taxes are the way we fund schools, police, fire, parks and recreation, streets, etc.. He didn’t say property taxes haven’t gone up or that schools can control their budgets. This system didn’t arise yesterday and while it’s easy to complain about it, who among those who own property wouldn’t like to see a decrease, it’s hard to come up with an alternative. I know you’re a business owner, operating in two states, North Dakota has a state income tax; South Dakota does not—two different approaches. Back in 2015 the state took a hard look at funding for schools—there were no easy solutions at least in part because every school district faces different challenges. Again, it’s easy to complain that school budgets have increased—but I’d ask you as a business owner, have the inputs for your product increased in price? Have your labor costs increased? What is your solution if making your mattresses costs more money? Do you increase the price of your product to compensate for the fact that it costs you more to make? I’m guessing you do—this is not a perfect analogy because schools aren’t for profit enterprises. Just sayin’ it’s complicated.
Adam a business owner, I have to account for every $ I spend. I cannot, for example, send one of my employees to Costco with a taxpayer credit card & tell them to buy a bunch of supplies we don't need in order to spend out our "budget" so it doesn't get lowered next year. This kind of waste happens in every single public school, because that's just how the system works.
I also cannot "opt out" of my available budget by magically exporting more $ from my customers. I have to compete with 50 local competitors & tbe internet. So, my products & service have to be flawless, unlike our educational system.
I think I understand where you’re coming from, but you are a for profit business. Unless you want to go out of business, you have to make money. Your product is a mattress—not a human being. If schools were producing mattresses, it would be easy. I highly doubt every single public school is sending employees to Costco to buy supplies they don’t need—I mean Sioux Falls has a Costco, but nowhere else in the state does . . . and you can certainly "opt out" of your budget by simply raising your prices, presto more revenue. Or you can just cut employees, adjust inventory by reducing the number of mattresses you produce, you’ve got tools at your disposal. Bottomline we’re not comparing apples to apples, but again, I appreciate your frustrations.
Oh, I didn’t say it might not affect your revenue, just that you have a bunch of options available to you—and if your input costs go up, you raise prices and if those prices motivate consumers to make a different choice, you still have different choices.
We can argue for days about apples & oranges, but the main point I am trying to make is about mindset. Government bureaucrats act as if the whole idea of frugality is cruel & impossible. Total disconnect from what how the average taxpayer functions in the real world.
It so gratuitous that they are giving us property owners a tax break. Any fool knows that if they need $1 million dollars to pay for governmental expenses they are going to take $1 million of taxes to get it. This article just proves that they just dressed it up and called it some random BS. One of the weakest opinion pieces I’ve read in a long time. Still wondering when governmental agencies will actually cut costs but the writer of this piece has no concept about that part. Signed a fatigued taxpayer.
“Renters, alas, get none of it, even though they pay property tax indirectly through their rents”
No, they don’t. This is a dumb argument because we all know that any property tax relief for rental properties will not lower rents. The business owner (landlord) pays the property tax as they would pay any other business expense or taxes.
Landlords will charge whatever the market lets them charge. They aren’t going to reduce rents because their business expenses go down, they’ll just have more profits.
The property tax paid by a landlord is no different from property taxes paid by any other business owner.
My wife and I own two homes, we’re retiring soon and now realizing that we can’t afford property taxes and insurance on both. Being forced out of a home because of this situation is unacceptable. Being taxed on unrealized gains, since the county tax accessor acts like a real estate agent doing comparative property analysis. I find all of this frustrating, the letter claiming that we’re receiving some financial grace is absurd. Possibly someone working in the Department of Equalization can explain on my wife and I use more roads, city and county services? Brown County and Aberdeen population is shrinking and yet the budget and spending is up, why? Aberdeen SD 2025 vs 2024 budget:
• 2024: Total ~$100M+ (first reading approved at just over $100M; projections ~$104M).
• 2025: Total ~$135–136M (record high).
• General Fund: 2025 ~$45.56M (increase implied from total growth).
• Change: Significant increase in total budget (capital/projects-driven); supplements in both years for contingencies/vehicles/parks.
This is how the current folks in charge will get themselves replaced, voted out and fired.
Seriously, stop the nonsense of “well what do you want to reduce, police or the fire department?” That is a straw man argument.
"It costs the state" is the most backwards cucked way of looking at the fact that we are paying rent to the state for property we own, & which has gone up dramatically since 2019.
Taxes are not rent but rather payment for services we receive, schools being the largest recipient of tax dollars. Police and fire departments, parks and recreation, street maintenance, public health and transportation plus many others all take a bite of the tax dollars. Which ones do you want to cut? Please be specific.
What a nonsense straw man argument, paying for services not being used proportionally is robbery, paying tax on unrealized gains (increased property value) is criminal. Not being able to stay in your home after one retires is criminal. It’s spending taxpayers money with zero accountability, that’s the problem. Look at Brown County and Aberdeen budgets since 2015 until now, insane spending and population growth is flat.
Please be specific on which services must be cut. I have paid property taxes, starting in 1971, and don’t feel that I have been robbed. In 55 years I’ve only had to utilize police and fire departments three times. I’m damn glad they were there. My kids and now grandkids attended public schools and received/are receiving great education. I like the snow removal in the winter and the pools in the summer. Visits to parks are too many to count. If you want to only pay when you receive a benefit check out the cost of an ambulance ride. Unless you are a top earner that ride will probably be well beyond your property taxes bill.
Bib, surely you aren't making the case that none of these gov't agencies (particularly public schools) can control their budgets, or that property taxes haven't skyrocketed since 2019.
Chris: Bob was making the point that property taxes are the way we fund schools, police, fire, parks and recreation, streets, etc.. He didn’t say property taxes haven’t gone up or that schools can control their budgets. This system didn’t arise yesterday and while it’s easy to complain about it, who among those who own property wouldn’t like to see a decrease, it’s hard to come up with an alternative. I know you’re a business owner, operating in two states, North Dakota has a state income tax; South Dakota does not—two different approaches. Back in 2015 the state took a hard look at funding for schools—there were no easy solutions at least in part because every school district faces different challenges. Again, it’s easy to complain that school budgets have increased—but I’d ask you as a business owner, have the inputs for your product increased in price? Have your labor costs increased? What is your solution if making your mattresses costs more money? Do you increase the price of your product to compensate for the fact that it costs you more to make? I’m guessing you do—this is not a perfect analogy because schools aren’t for profit enterprises. Just sayin’ it’s complicated.
Adam a business owner, I have to account for every $ I spend. I cannot, for example, send one of my employees to Costco with a taxpayer credit card & tell them to buy a bunch of supplies we don't need in order to spend out our "budget" so it doesn't get lowered next year. This kind of waste happens in every single public school, because that's just how the system works.
I also cannot "opt out" of my available budget by magically exporting more $ from my customers. I have to compete with 50 local competitors & tbe internet. So, my products & service have to be flawless, unlike our educational system.
I think I understand where you’re coming from, but you are a for profit business. Unless you want to go out of business, you have to make money. Your product is a mattress—not a human being. If schools were producing mattresses, it would be easy. I highly doubt every single public school is sending employees to Costco to buy supplies they don’t need—I mean Sioux Falls has a Costco, but nowhere else in the state does . . . and you can certainly "opt out" of your budget by simply raising your prices, presto more revenue. Or you can just cut employees, adjust inventory by reducing the number of mattresses you produce, you’ve got tools at your disposal. Bottomline we’re not comparing apples to apples, but again, I appreciate your frustrations.
Wow I can just raise my prices with no effect on revenue? Sorry, it's not that simple, because we actually have competition.
Oh, I didn’t say it might not affect your revenue, just that you have a bunch of options available to you—and if your input costs go up, you raise prices and if those prices motivate consumers to make a different choice, you still have different choices.
We can argue for days about apples & oranges, but the main point I am trying to make is about mindset. Government bureaucrats act as if the whole idea of frugality is cruel & impossible. Total disconnect from what how the average taxpayer functions in the real world.
It so gratuitous that they are giving us property owners a tax break. Any fool knows that if they need $1 million dollars to pay for governmental expenses they are going to take $1 million of taxes to get it. This article just proves that they just dressed it up and called it some random BS. One of the weakest opinion pieces I’ve read in a long time. Still wondering when governmental agencies will actually cut costs but the writer of this piece has no concept about that part. Signed a fatigued taxpayer.
“Renters, alas, get none of it, even though they pay property tax indirectly through their rents”
No, they don’t. This is a dumb argument because we all know that any property tax relief for rental properties will not lower rents. The business owner (landlord) pays the property tax as they would pay any other business expense or taxes.
Landlords will charge whatever the market lets them charge. They aren’t going to reduce rents because their business expenses go down, they’ll just have more profits.
The property tax paid by a landlord is no different from property taxes paid by any other business owner.
ok retard
My wife and I own two homes, we’re retiring soon and now realizing that we can’t afford property taxes and insurance on both. Being forced out of a home because of this situation is unacceptable. Being taxed on unrealized gains, since the county tax accessor acts like a real estate agent doing comparative property analysis. I find all of this frustrating, the letter claiming that we’re receiving some financial grace is absurd. Possibly someone working in the Department of Equalization can explain on my wife and I use more roads, city and county services? Brown County and Aberdeen population is shrinking and yet the budget and spending is up, why? Aberdeen SD 2025 vs 2024 budget:
• 2024: Total ~$100M+ (first reading approved at just over $100M; projections ~$104M).
• 2025: Total ~$135–136M (record high).
• General Fund: 2025 ~$45.56M (increase implied from total growth).
• Change: Significant increase in total budget (capital/projects-driven); supplements in both years for contingencies/vehicles/parks.
This is how the current folks in charge will get themselves replaced, voted out and fired.
Seriously, stop the nonsense of “well what do you want to reduce, police or the fire department?” That is a straw man argument.