617 N. Elm St in Historic Fisher Park
Our legislature is exploring taxing medical services in order to close the budget shortfall. That means an extra charge on top of each dental cleaning, physical, check up, illness which I already pay for through insurance premiums, co-pays and the little extra doctors charge that insurance companies don’t cover. In practical terms, this means that I will have my teeth cleaned once per year so the rest of the family can have their bi-annual check ups.
2205 W Market St in Historic Sunset Hills
A letter to today’s paper proposed government buying foreclosed property from banks then using a lottery system to dispose of them because this shell game works so well for education.
302 W Market St, downtown Greensboro
I think it may be time to look at some untapped resources.
The year we bought our house, the nearby town that provided our water hook ups decided that they needed to update the pipes that delivered our water. As our property is in an unincorporated part of the county, we do not pay taxes to this municipality nor do we have representation. There was a contract drawn up about 30 years before. It was a simple agreement that the couple dozen households near the border would pay for the installation and upkeep of a water delivery system and would pay for the water at twice the rate of people living in town. Not ideal but it worked.
After 30 years the town decided that the pipes needed to be bigger. It is not that there is more demand along the line. There had been some breaks and leaks which we property owners promptly had fixed at our own expense. Still, the town insisted that our two inch pipe needed to be replaced with a six inch pipe.
As it turns out, we were paying for a system to serve a new neighborhood that was in the planning stages. Several dozen new houses that would be within the city limits could be most directly served using the pipes that serviced our few houses. My suggestion was that if the town had to use larger pipes they should pick up the difference in price. We would pay replacement value for the current system; they could kick in the increased cost of a heftier infrastructure. Of course, since we had no representation the town refused to entertain negotiations. We got stuck with the inflated bill.
(This is typical property owner rant, I know but there is more to the story.)
You know how they say that Americans work a certain number of days just to pay taxes? Well you could add another 9 weeks to that for me to pay off that freaking water line. An unexpected expense but I paid it off. Then several weeks later I heard the same lament but accomanied by a choir. Apparently a property owner had petitioned the town to waive the fee. They couldn’t afford it. They were poor. They had limited resources. They asked for mercy. And they got it. Because they are a church. Now I understand they are a small church with just a few dozen congregants but they are associated with a larger worldwide organization that rakes in hundreds of millions of dollars yearly. And I understand that their portion of the bill was larger than mine because their quaint little congregation holds onto 14 acres of undeveloped land next to the new development. And I understand that they are water conservationists of a sort, adhering to baptism of the Holy Spirit. But all this is besides the point.
They got an exemption because they are a church.
First Presbyterian Church, 617 N Elm St in historic Fisher Park.
Our Lady of Grace, 2205 West Market Street in historic Sunset Hills.
West Market United Methodist, 302 W. Market St, downtown Greensboro.
Why are these agencies which sit on some of the most valuable land in the county not paying property taxes?
15Then the Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap him in his words. 16They sent their disciples to him along with the Herodians. “Teacher,” they said, “we know you are a man of integrity and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. You aren’t swayed by men, because you pay no attention to who they are. 17Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?”
18But Jesus, knowing their evil intent, said, “You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me? 19Show me the coin used for paying the tax.” They brought him a denarius, 20and he asked them, “Whose portrait is this? And whose inscription?”
21“Caesar’s,” they replied.
Then he said to them, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”
22When they heard this, they were amazed. So they left him and went away.
Matthew 15-22



