re: For the 3rd year in a row, Louisiana leads the country in….sales tax

Your posts are full of poorly constucted or irrelevant hypotheticals. I live in a state with low property tax (compared to the other 2 I lived in, also this is generally county to county vs. statewide) and no income tax. Sales tax is not near 25%, it's still below LA where the property tax is higher and there is income tax. And TN has a balanced budget, every year, by law. Spend less.

And principally you are wrong about the founding fathers views on taxes, that was just a vastly different era in terms of what can be efficiently tracked. They didn't start with any income tax by the way.

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TN's state budget would more than double if they had to pay for every county service that is no longer funded by property taxes. You realize that, right?


It would take an approximately 23% sales tax rate for LA to take in the same amount as it takes in for income + parish level property taxes.

But that would certainly NOT be enough, as millions of La residents would be HEAVILY incentivized to shop in TX, AR and MS.

Oh and now virtually all governmental power and decision making in the state of Louisiana is ceded to Baton Rouge.


The people who want everything to be paid via sales taxes haven't spent even 10 minutes gameplanning it out

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Of course there is some minimum government funding budget, and it would have to come from somewhere, that's not the point. The point is that no government should be able to take some old retired couple's property that's been paid for for decades because they don't pay taxes on it. The founding fathers knew there needed to be options on tax sources to prevent completely avoiding them, but they also pushed most (basically all of it at first) taxing to the states. So there wasn't really a federal take on taxes at first, other than to let local reps handle local tax decisions.

We pay a shite ton more in sales tax than property taxes each year, rolling the $4500 we pay in property taxes into other services we get or things we buy/use throughout the year would not be that jarring. And, it might drive lots of people to consume differently, which isn't a bad thing (which would drive down tax intake which should cause local governing bodies to make better spending decisions, etc. - though I know logic usually does not rule that process, it should).

My preference is a much, much smaller government. I can certainly understand that someone who doesn't have that goal does not think the numbers will work, and in their version of what government is/does, it won't.

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We pay less in property taxes than most other places.

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True.

I’d rather a sales tax than pretty much raising any other taxes. Everyone, even the poors pay sales tax.

Consumption taxes are the fairest taxes.

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The point is that no government should be able to take some old retired couple's property that's been paid for for decades because they don't pay taxes on it. The founding fathers knew there needed to be options on tax sources to prevent completely avoiding them, but they also pushed most (basically all of it at first) taxing to the states.

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How much you owe in mortgage and how long you owned your house should have no bearing on your financial burden to keep the community functioning. Sure public school tax could and should be eliminated but you still need garbage, sewer, police, fire, and emt as much as ever.
In fact taking the boomers out of the contributory process makes it that much harder for young people to get started in home ownership.

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I pass every cost increase on to tenants.

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Then youre the first landlord that I've ever heard of that included a property tax assessment in the rent, like some would do for utilities, additional keys, parking space, security deposits, etc

I'd go so far to say you never once have mentioned that they are actually paying your property taxes, when you tell them what the rent will be each month

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Lol. Lmao even.

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I figured that would go over your head

Renters do not write a single check to the city, county, sheriff or an escrow acct to pay for property taxes. They just pay the rent. It gets even worse for those on housing assistance. The govt actually covers the cost of your property taxes, and absolutely will go to great lengths to see that the renter is not harmed if you dont pay the tax

Which is no different than any homeowner. The money they take in for working as a nurse doesnt specify that it will go to pay property taxes, its just their source of funding to pay the home property tax when due.

So a landlord that dips into his bank acct to pay property tax, is the one person paying the tax, no matter where the funds come from

So back to the original point (which you couldnt seem to grasp) is that if a renter pays each month, but the landlord chooses to skip the property tax payment, the renter is not effected in any way whatsoever. Which means they didnt pay a single penny toward that tax, and wont be penalized with credit scores, legal filings, or loss of property. Even though you laughingly claim they are paying it.

In fact, the court would likely allow them to continue living there while the bank or sheriff reclaims the property, from the guy that was required to pay the tax

Again, property taxes punish those that work hard, in favor of those that suffer nothing in regards to lack of payment

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Then youre the first landlord that I've ever heard of that included a property tax assessment in the rent, like some would do for utilities, additional keys, parking space, security deposits, etc

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Holy shite