David (I think) in an earlier posting spoke of the end of the limited market value increase portion of the law, which was intended to protect those on fixed incomes. My recollection of news about the tax law passed is that this clause wasn't renewed, but also doesn't expire for at least a couple of years. The issue was that if the public wants to keep it, they need to make sure that the legislators need to pass a renewal. I think that may be what kept Bob's taxes to an annual inflation of 8 12%. California went much farther when they passed Proposition 13 that froze the taxable value of a house (maybe all property) until it was sold. That has led to pronlems in school funding. I don't think that it was the total tax paid, but I could be off on that. David also wrote: > Also, I don't want to argue that > commercial-property taxes are perfectly fair for all payers. Just like > residential property taxes, they don't take into account ability to pay > (corporate profits). I have a problem with the idea that if you had lower profits you wouldn't have to pay [as much] property taxes. Currently property taxes are part of operating expenses and therefore reduce profits. A corporation like Bob's could shunt a bunch of money into salaries so that there is no profit, thereby reducing or eliminating property taxes, depending on the rules. Such an approach might also cause accounting headaches in figuring taxes between state and federal. How would the city, county, and state be able to predict how much tax revenue there would be if it depended on the fiscal success of each corporation? You would also need to build in a couple of years' lag so that you would have profit figures to base the tax on. Imagine the paper work needed if a corporation filed an amended tax return that had a significant change in profitability. Bruce Gaarder Highland Park Saint Paul [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - Minnesota E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
