THE EVER SHRINKING VALUE OF YOUR PROPERTY

According to the Cornwall Local of March 2, 2007 our school budget increased 129% over the last 10 years. This is a mind-numbing 12.9% annual increase on average. What happens to the value of your home when taxes go up so rapidly? Your home becomes worthless because a prospective buyer has to use an ever larger chunk of their household income to feed the tax beast, therefore there will be less and less that he or she can apply towards their mortgage. Since there will be an ever smaller amount that can be applied towards the mortgage, the amount of money that he or she can pay for your home becomes ever smaller. It is an absolute mathematical certainty that for every 7 year period that the amount of money is increased by 10%, the money nearly doubles every 7 years. THIS MEANS THAT EACH AND EVERY 7 YEAR PERIOD your tax bill will also likely double. So here is how reality looks like for someone who had a newborn baby in 1997 and a reasonable property tax bill of $6000.

By the time that newborn reached 2 nd grade at age 7, the homeowners property tax bill would be in the neighborhood of $12,000. If this pattern keeps up, by the time that newborn reached 9 th grade, the tax bill would be approximately $24,000. And by the time that newborn graduated College that homeowners tax bill would be more than $48,000.

You say you would like some mathematical proof on this? Well then just follow the table below, or better yet, get out your own calculator and plug in your own numbers and see for yourself. Even better still, check our numbers and let us know at CornwallTaxpayersUnited.com if our calculators gave us fuzzy numbers. We are certain that the School board and Mr. Rehm certainly will check our numbers, although we are not going to hold our breath waiting for profound debate on this urgent issue. Here is the reality of what a tax bill that increases 10% per year will cost after 22 years.

$6000 X 1.10 = $6600 end of year 1
$6600 X 1.10 = $7260 end of year 2
$7260 X 1.10 = $7986 end of year 3
$7986 X 1.10 = $8784.60 end of year 4
$8784.60 X 1.10 = $9663.06 end of year 5
$9663.06 X 1.10 = $10, 629.37 end of year 6
$10,629.37 X 1.10 = $11,692.30 end of year 7
$11,692.30 X 1.10 = $12,861.53 end of year 8
$12,861.53 X 1.10 = $14,147.68 end of year 9
$14,147.68 X 1.10 = $15,562.45 end of year 10
$15,562.45 X 1.10 = $17,118.70 end of year 11
$17,118.70 X 1.10 = $18,830.56 end of year 12
$18,830.56 X 1.10 = $20,713.62 end of year 13
$20,713.62 X 1.10 = $22,784.98 end of year 14
$22,784.98 X 1.10 = $25,063.48 end of year 15
$25,063.48 X 1.10 = $27,569.83 end of year 16
$27,569.83 X 1.10 = $30,326.81 end of year 17
$30,326.81 X 1.10 = $33,359.50 end of year 18
$33,359.50 X 1.10 = $36,695.47 end of year 19
$36,695.47 X 1.10 = $40,364.99 end of year 20
$40,364.99 X 1.10 = $44,401.49 end of year 21
$44,401.49 X 1.10 = $48,841.64 end of year 22

If this is what a 10% annual tax increase does to your tax bill, one can only imagine what a 12.9% annual increase does to the property value of your homes, and the financial wreck that it causes to our senior citizens, whose social security checks are only marginally increased year over year. On May 17, 2011, there is going to be a budget vote for the 2011-2012 school year.

YOU MUST GO OUT AND VOTE “NO”
ON THE SCHOOL BUDGET VOTE