Rural economy rebounding in 2011

[Jim Meade / Iowa City]

Ag land taxes are going to go up simply as a function of increased land values and therefore increased assessments.

[Kay/NC]

Yesterday, I heard on NPR that the new Republican approach in the House is to be called "cut as you go."  This philosophy is to work out so that as any new dollar os spent, one must be cut somewhere else in the government. This is supposed to replace the "pay as you go" Democrat approach, which meant that each new dollar was pretty much a new tax dollar being rasied somehere. 

It will be interesting to see if this actually pans out. 

I know that our local government is strapped to a serious degree right now, yet there is still talk of a new, single.central high school, and a new courthouse.  I have yet to figure out how a place with no real industry to tax, very little commercial real estate, and a generally poor stock of housing -singlewide trailers, on-frame modular homes, and older houses for the most part - can carry off the tax revenue to build new bricks and mortar public buildings. 

[wt510151]

Can you recall those local offcials that want to do this? Omaha is doing exactly that to the mayor. If the citizens do not get involved in budget decisions, then they have only themselves to blame for their high taxes.

Getting back to the federal government, if one dollar is cut as one is spent, how are they going to reduce the budget? It will only stay the same. Wondering how they define "spent" too. Would that include tax cuts? I see a lot of deadlock in the coming 2 years.

[Kay/NC]

I think this is simply a new version of the Republican mantra ":Read my lips: NO NEW TAXES."

That came back to bite Bush I in the rear, didn't it?

In an ideal world, the government would get smaller, and taxes would shrink proportionately.  I guess time will tell. 

[Canuck_2]

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@JIM Meade / Iowa City wrote:

Ag land taxes are going to go up simply as a function of increased land values and therefore increased assessments.

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You make a good point Jim.

Happened to us a few years ago with a runup in local famland prices.

We were impacted also by a couple of high prices paid by neighbours who wanted/needed property that was next door to their home. It was worth more to them. 

1 was for a property that was between 2 others they owned.

Anyway the price of land near us shot up and so did our taxes, 65% rise on bare land and to make matters harder to swallow the taxes on houses in a nearby village fell slightly because they got more $$ from farmland.

[wt510151]

In an ideal world, there would be no need for government.

[k-289]

Agreed  WT--in some's infinite wisdom of reducing populace from a rural landscape and expect a rural economic rebound--only for a few will this take place and a continued unraveling of social fabric will prevail unless policy is rethought----any body that believes there taxes will ''decrease' ' must be on another planet---4 decades since graduation and I havn't witnessed it yet--although I see main street continue to shrink--how much cheaper is your milk bill than 10 years ago-- with ''big'' being the answer you would think one would just about get it for free ----Grandpa used to say --"talk is cheap--take's real money to buy whiskey"     

[kraft-t]

You haven't sen lower taxes in 40 years? What do you think has happened to tax rates during the last forty years?

[nwobcw]

   Smoke, can we be far behind?    Remember how bad farmers had it following the economic doldrums of the non farm economy of '79-83.  The dollar is steadily gaining value internationally.  The Euro is losing value and some reports have it going away in the future.  Supposedly the yuan  is losing value due to inflation over there although  it's difficult to gauge the accuracy of news coming ftom China.

[k-289]

You might "spend" your way around them---do the math --sales tax --gas tax-state and federal---hotel tax--- tobacco tax--property tax---personal and real estate---the page isn't long enough and which is part of doing business---cut spending or decrease taxes both don't hold much water ---