WHO'S LOOKING OUT FOR SENIORS?
State and local governments are getting fat off property taxes while seniors on fixed incomes suffer
BY GEORGE HARRIS

George Harris is publisher of Liberty Watch: The Magazine. He is also a political activist and successful Southern Nevadan businessman. Reach Harris at gopgeorge@earthlink.net  Other stories by George Harris

Nevada lawmakers continue to pat themselves on the back for enacting AB 489, passed during the 2005 Legislature. It limits property-tax increases on owner-occupied homes to 3 percent per year. After all, as the Associated Press reported recently, the state raked in $1 billion less in property taxes due to cap. 

But state government over-taxed its citizens half a billion dollars or more last year, and seniors on fixed incomes - staring at 3-percent property-tax increases from now until they depart for a better place - may not think legislators are doing them any favors. Continuous 3-percent property tax increases mean a doubling in 24 years. Do you suppose those vital services that government provides will double as well? 

Legislators didn't provide any real tax relief for seniors because they listened to guys like Guy Hobbs of the Governor's Tax Task Force fame. Hobbs is government's favorite number cruncher and apologist. In a white paper entitled "Property Tax Relief Analysis," Hobbs wrote: "Too little relief or protection for the taxpayer will result in a generation of revenue beyond the needs of government, not to mention ongoing taxpayer discontent."

But, Hobbs then worried, "over-constraining the level of revenue growth from year to year could affect the delivery of basic services and place government in the position of having to seek new and perhaps less palatable sources of revenue."

It's hard to imagine anything less palatable than taxes and it's especially galling that government does nothing to earn this automatic increase each year. Inflation, low interest rates and Nevada's government-created land shortage have raised home values while greedy tax assessors like Clark County's Mark Schofield lay in wait to reassess property values and sock an increase to us each and every year. 

You may remember that Schofield stumped for a 6-percent cap during the 2005 Legislature. Fortunately, he only got half his wish. But, it's still too much. Housing prices are stabilizing in Nevada, but the 3-percent increase is baked in the cake because values jumped by a third last year. That's a decade's worth of increases right there. 

The local municipalities, by the way, are raking it in. Local governments in Clark County are projected to take $1.79 billion from homeowners this year, an increase of 8.8 percent over what was projected. 

The Las Vegas Sun reports that the city of North Las Vegas projects that property tax revenue collected this year will be up 20 percent over last year. That's after increases of 19 percent in 2003, 15 percent in 2004 and 25 percent in 2005. Henderson property tax revenues are up 12 percent, Clark County projects property tax dollars to increase by 9 percent this year, and the city of Las Vegas projects a 10.5 percent growth in its total property tax revenue. 

The numbers make it clear that state and local governments are getting fat, while seniors on fixed incomes suffer. The 2007 Legislature must fix the property tax again. And do it right this time. LW