The screwed up thing in SC: the lottery was trumpeted as a way to improve education funding, it's even called the Education Lottery. It turns out the majority of the money has gone to higher ed which honestly didn't need much help.
The elementary, middle and high schools in the poor counties with a crappy property tax base (that's how SC funds its schools) don't see a damn dime of that money. That has always bugged me.
dyintorace wrote: There are two primary sources of taxes in Florida. Property tax, which as described above is down, and sales tax. That's WAY down and really ripping a hole in the state budget. With no personal state income tax, it's really up to those two taxes to carry the budget. Both are sucking wind.
Exactly my point.
Margie referred to the housing bust. The article she referenced pointed to the downturn in the economy. They are not the same thing.
State budgets are down across the nation due to reduced tax revenues from the economic downturn, which in turn effects local education budgets (because pretty much all local education boards have succumbed to allowing the state and the fed to drive their budgets and dictate their programs).
But that's not directly related to the housing bust.
The housing bust will affect local education budgets in the future as property values fall.
Local school taxes (based on property taxes) generally pay for a very limited part of the educational expenses.
914Driver wrote: Snow, mine gets reassessed almost every year, always up. If your house is worth more you pay more in taxes. I haven't even mowed the lawn for beautification, but they said it's worth $37,000 more than it was 18 months ago. Welcome to New York.
Mine used to get assessed every year until prices stopped going up. Then they skipped a year and last year decided my house went up only $650. You have to understand that I do my best to keep the place looking bad by keeping lots of dogs and old project cars on the property. 
I live in an old neighborhood and the flippers have been through here putting granite countertops on everything in site. There are five houses on my block owned by flippers that have been on the market for more than a year. Every single one of them is owned by an out of state investor and the realtors aren't even bothering to have open houses anymore. It isn't as bad here as it is in California or Florida, but it isn't all that great.
There's always home schooling. 
That's why we've done it for 15 years. 
Snow, What part of Dallas are you?
btp76 wrote: Snow, What part of Dallas are you?
Northeast.
I'm on White Rock Lake.
btp76 wrote: I'm on White Rock Lake.
I'm near there.
Margie, it's truly a shame that the county is getting rid of all of those programs. I don't know about the other schools in the state, because I didn't apply, but I had a really good GPA, IB diploma, lots of extra-curricular, volunteer, and work experience, and I still only got a deferred admission into UF.
SVreX wrote: There's always home schooling.
+1
Only 5 years though.
SVReX,
Floridans recently passed an additional homestead exemption exempting another $25k from property tax. This, combined with the previously mentioned reasons, has drastically cut budgets from last years numbers.
On the flip side:
In the past 10 years property values have more than doubled in most of Florida. Due to "Save our Homes" legislation in most areas your assessed value can not go up more than 3% a year. What this means is despite the massive drop in home sales and prices in the last year or so most peoples assessed value increased and therefore taxes will increase. This increase will very soon outpace the money lost with the extra homestead exemption. Also, due to a housing boom and the state rapidly growing in population, most Florida counties were sitting on massive tax excesses less than 3 years ago. These were all spent wisely of course on programs with recurring expenses that soaked up any and all budget surplus.
Now we have a decrease in tax revenue to the same amounts we had 3 years ago and we are in a financial crisis. In response to this every school board and county or city commission has cut what is most visible and painful and then blamed the taxpayer because we are too stingy with our tax dollars. This has somehow worked and convinced most people in Florida that in a time of financial crisis it makes sense to give MORE of the money you have less of to the most wasteful entity on the planet.
Jensenman wrote: The screwed up thing in SC: the lottery was trumpeted as a way to improve education funding, it's even called the Education Lottery. It turns out the majority of the money has gone to higher ed which honestly didn't need much help. The elementary, middle and high schools in the poor counties with a crappy property tax base (that's how SC funds its schools) don't see a damn dime of that money. That has always bugged me.
From what ive heard in FL, they have been pretty good about giving lottery money to the schools. They just cut the other money.
SVreX wrote: The housing bust will affect local education budgets in the future as property values fall. Local school taxes (based on property taxes) generally pay for a very limited part of the educational expenses.
The housing bust affects local education now because revenues are already down--taxpaying properties at the November payment deadline last year turned into foreclosed vacancies this year. Student enrollment did not meet projections and is forecast to drop further, so less federal $$ due to lower enrollment. Next year the budget is projected to suck serious wind as property assessments, enrollments and the tax base continue to shrink.
As for where our money comes from, this is Florida. There's sales tax and property tax. That's it. That's why the cheap-asses love to come here in the first place.
And it's my understanding that only some of the lottery money goes to education. And yes, they did cut some of the other sources of education funding after the lottery came in.
Margie
Question: When a bank forecloses on a house, do they have to pay the property taxes?
Jensenman wrote: The screwed up thing in SC: the lottery was trumpeted as a way to improve education funding, it's even called the Education Lottery. It turns out the majority of the money has gone to higher ed which honestly didn't need much help. The elementary, middle and high schools in the poor counties with a crappy property tax base (that's how SC funds its schools) don't see a damn dime of that money. That has always bugged me.
they did something similar with the texas lottery, only the money doesn't augment anything but the general fund.
say the state school budget is $10M. the lottery brings in $2M from the previous year thats "supposed" to go to the school budget. instead of the school budget being $12M, its still $10M, with $8M coming from the state and $2M from the lottery. this then sends $2M back to the general fund to be spent somewhere else.
neat trick huh?
MrJoshua wrote: Question: When a bank forecloses on a house, do they have to pay the property taxes?
yup
ONCE the foreclosure is complete and the bank resumes ownership. That ain't instant.
Guy across the street from J.G. jingle-maiiled this fall. J.G. said the mortgage company is still leaving express packages on the guy's doorstep. Who do you think is paying his taxes?
Margie
Since the owner of record is responsible for taxes, once they take possession they are supposed to but generally they will pay out the least they can get away with. So they don't pay the taxes and then a tax lien is slapped on the property. Generally it works out that when the property is resold, the tax collecting entity is standing there with their hand out at sale closing time. Or at least that's how it works in SC, both my dad and brother have bought tax sale properties and they had to settle both the outstanding mortgage balance and the back taxes at the time of sale.
MrJoshua wrote:Jensenman wrote: The screwed up thing in SC: the lottery was trumpeted as a way to improve education funding, it's even called the Education Lottery. It turns out the majority of the money has gone to higher ed which honestly didn't need much help. The elementary, middle and high schools in the poor counties with a crappy property tax base (that's how SC funds its schools) don't see a damn dime of that money. That has always bugged me.From what ive heard in FL, they have been pretty good about giving lottery money to the schools. They just cut the other money.
The lottery in SC was a total sham from the beginning. Evidently just like in Florida, state funding was cut to the tune of whatever the lottery was bringing in. Many though "Oh it worked great in Georgia, every student gets to go to college for free as long as they have a 'B' average". I think that program is in trouble now as well, since SC and NC have both adopted "education" lotteries. Also, most of the funding goes to technical schools rather than primary schools, secondary schools or colleges and universities. Clemson had more than doubled in the four years it took me to graduate (98-02) and has since doubled again if I'm not mistaken. I like the idea of funding tech schools if it is helping someone go from unemployed or a low paying job to a high paying job. When "education" lottery money is funding a scrapbooking class for people because they are bored, I think it could be better spent elsewhere.
I am considering a house across the street from Joel the Pimp but I am afraid that the $40,000 3 bedroom 2 1/2 car garage will be back taxed to death.
Oh well.
Strizzo wrote:MrJoshua wrote: Question: When a bank forecloses on a house, do they have to pay the property taxes?yup
Just like the guy who is getting forclosed on 'has' to pay his house payment.
I was under the impression the seller was responsible for the back taxes, not the buyer. I also thought that at a certain point, the county could seize the property if taxes haven't been paid (i.e. if the bank didn't bring the taxes up to date on a foreclosure) . In that case, I think the buyer is responsible for the back taxes. I've had no direct experience though.
Marjorie Suddard wrote: I'll sue our loser county for voucher funds on the basis of failure to provide a path for state academic scholarships and go there if I have to. I'm just gettin' started.
Good for you. It's cool that you set your expectations high for the kids education.
Didn't we have a pretty healthy debate in the last couple of years where I was for vouchers to allow parents to get their kids out of failing school systems, and you were solidly against them? Something about how one should work to improve the schools rather than abandon them?
JoshC wrote: I was under the impression the seller was responsible for the back taxes, not the buyer. I also thought that at a certain point, the county could seize the property if taxes haven't been paid (i.e. if the bank didn't bring the taxes up to date on a foreclosure) . In that case, I think the buyer is responsible for the back taxes. I've had no direct experience though.
They can take property for non-payment of taxes, but in a bad market that just gives the county more surplus property that they can't sell, and still they are not collecting taxes on it.
The tax lien is on the property itself and makes no determination on who is responsible for the back taxes, only that they must be paid when the house changes hands. In practice it's very seldom that someone whose house is foreclosed on for back taxes can pay them so it now becomes the new owner's responsibility.
Again this is SC: if you buy a home at a tax auction (not to be confused with foreclosure), the previous owner has one year after the auction date to buy the house from the new owner for the amount of the back taxes paid at auction plus a reasonable rate of interest and any payments the new owner has made towards a mortgage, etc. It's quite possible, if you aren't careful, to buy a distressed property at tax auction, plow $$ into it o fix up to sell and then to have someone come in and say 'hey I want it back' and you lose what you put into it for improvements. So what happens is an investor buys a house at a tax sale, then the house sits for a year and then they start fixing it up to sell, rent, etc. My brother bought a house in Pelion, SC for back taxes and the previous owner inherited some money and bought it back 10 months later.
You'll need to log in to post.
