| Author | Message | ||
     Rheims |
On a previous string, Lydia Lacey, de facto voice of the FairTax organization, got into it with "Townie" over houses in their neighborhood being underevaluated, that perhaps this was as much of a problem as houses being overevaluated and should be investigated. So is this FairTax's strategy: first, get their own revaluations lowered; then, get their unsuspecting neighbors' revalutions RAISED so the taxes of the former will be that much less at the expense of the latter? I wouldn't have thought this likely until my spouse looked into Townie's complaints that Lydia was trying to "out" him on the board, and given the name of someone on Durand found his complaints completely justified. If Lydia/FairTax is willing to play this pathetic tattletale game here, who's to say she wouldn't play it with Mr. Galante? | ||
| Dave |
And we won't be playing the name game here. FairTax is an organization and can be discussed. Discussion of individual homeowners by name here will be deleted and the username blocked from posting again. Fairtax, you are treading on thin ice in this area. Be forewarned. | ||
| Njjoseph |
Rheims, I got a chuckle out of your second paragraph. Not that it's funny, mind you, but it puts us into exactly the situation we were in with the 1981 valuation. | ||
| Rheims |
Njjoseph I agree. The under-revalued are getting a huge and lucky break, and it's not fair, just as it hasn't been fair that some houses have been paying more than their share for two decades. What bothers me is the seeming targeting of certain addresses for their less fortunate neighbors' gain. It's not unlike the Florida chad fiasco. If the Democrats had asked that the underpunched and overpunched votes in the entire state, not just a couple of Democratic counties, be counted, then Al Gore might be sitting in the Oval Office today. Similarly, if Fairtax goes after a few under-revalued neighbors instead of all the under-revalued people in the town, then they will show they aren't really fair at all. Of course, if they go after everyone, then they will really stir up some opposition. | ||
| Nilmiester |
Was something deleted here? Why the warning to FairTax? I didn't see any posting from them. Anyway, what's wrong with fairtax for all? Why should one house have special treatment and pay lower than all the rest? Isn't this what we are trying to correct? As for counting votes and Al Gore, they did count the heavily democratic counties and he still lost, counting the others wouldn't have helped Al, maybe George though. | ||
| Njjoseph |
Nil, I'm not sure we want to go there again, but your last sentence is not correct. And I believe that Rheims' point is that if Al had asked for all counties to be recounted, it would have seemed more fair and would have legitimized the votes he received in the 4 counties. | ||
| Ffof |
Rheims- I think you may have missed Fairtax's point about the under-valued homes. I don't think fairtax is trying to "out" just a few neighbors (However, In the case of Townie, perhaps Townie had provoked just a little too much?) Anyway, The point IS to look at ALL the valuations. Blanket reductions for some because CV goofed up , but then were ALL the streets reexmined or just those who complained? Couldn't it be that there were glaring mistakes on the UNDER-assessed side? THAT is the question here. | ||
| Rheims |
Njj: Exactly. Thank you. Nil: That string in question is the one with 170+ messages in response to a letter by FairTax. Ffof: I agree that this is the necessary approach to the reval: a consistent and clear methodology applied to all. But here's the rub: the reval is done. At best the TC can make corrections. But this effort only repeats the primary mistakes of the reval: its methodologies are also unclear and inconsistently applied (it seems). Seeing this will FairTax then simply fight for what's in their own best interest, not the town's? Personally, I doubt they are so altruistic. | ||
| Nilmiester |
Thanks guys(?), I see your point. I thought something here was deleted and I had missed it. I don't think any home should be singled out or tattled on but someone should be looking for glaring mistakes up or down. | ||
| Eliz |
omigod - I also thought poor Townie was going over the edge but he/she was right! I went back and reread the posts and with very little work was able to see exactly what Townie was saying. I haven't been a fan of Fairtax at all but was impressed when Lydia Lacey "came out" on this board. Lydia you've lost all credibility with me and I'm sure others - that was a sneaky, nasty and very unneighborly thing to do (and not too smart either). | ||
| Ffof |
I don't think fairtax is fighting only for what's in their own best interest. It's an adhoc group trying to figure out what's going on and what can be done! If anything comes of the whole debacle, I hope that there is better communication developed between the TC and the people for the future. ps. I saw Vic talking with people from Fairtax in town on Saturday morning. Maybe he (Vic) can tell us if they seemed altruistic or not! pss. I don't really care, however! Why can't there be a group who is fighting against super high tax increases!! | ||
| Fairtax01 |
I was wrong to have tried to "out" Townie - I let my emotions get ahead of my basic goal: to figure out this reval and have it fair for everyone. I apoligize to Townie (and Dave and the board) and I overstepped my bounds. I am a real person AND a person speaking for a group and I should have kept my group's nuetrality aside from my own questions about Townie. Ok, Flame away. | ||
| Euclidean |
I am a little sad to see that we are still fighting a Trenton battle in Maplewood at the expense of neighborhood relationships. Now, I have heard that there is going to be a state constitutional convention in 2002 and at that time, the equity of property tax as a primary source of revenue may be examined. However, I don't expect people in lower property tax areas to look at the suffering of Essex County and say, "oh my, those poor property owners, let's raise our state income taxes to help them out." Any improvement to property tax law will come about through a political process and political processes are about power. All of us should be working to make this a state issue. If we spend as much effort doing this as we have in attacking the TC and, more recently, each other, we might actually achieve something. More information can be found at http://www.njpp.org/. | ||
| Townie |
Rheims and Eliz: Thanks for saying what you did in your posts. Some people thought I was being paranoid. I want to make one thing abundantly clear to everybody: The name and occupation information that was hinted at describes someone else in Maplewood, not me. No one should believe that anything I said reflects the views of that resident. I can't speak for his views on Fairtax, but he's an extremely friendly man, and I don't want anything I said here being held against him. He's a guy who does good work and has a justifiably great reputation, not just in Maplewood. Ffof: I grant you I publicly posted many a scathing and withering opinion about Fairtax01, mainly at its public posture, but I don't think anything I said justifies posting information from the assessment database as a way of sending a critic a message - "We know where you live and can ask questions about your assessment" - especially when in this case they had the wrong person, and went beyond the public record to include hints that "we know where you work" and "we know your name." I feel protective of my neighbors and friends in Maplewood and their rights to privacy. So with this post, Townie is out of here. Dave has a wise rule about not trying to have more than one name on the boards and I will obey it. So if anybody else appears on these boards who argues with Fairtax01, it's not Townie, in any form or disguise. It's a new public critic of the organization Fairtax01 and its ways. Please don't try to "out" him or her or anyone on these boards. It's just too likely you'll hit the wrong person when you're swinging in the dark. | ||
| Fairtax01 |
By the way, I'm completely torn with the problem of over and under assessments. I was at City Hall and looking up comps and it does come down to making arguments about my house vs. my neighbors. I don't want to say "look my house is overassessed! - See this house that's much bigger and the same assessment!" And then have those houses go up because I used them as comps...I don't know if that would happen. I certainly don't want to have my house go up because someone used me as a comp either. This appeals process is very uncomfortable and made more so because we really don't know which assessments are accurate. Am I completely altruistic? Probably not, I want my assessment to go down. Would I accept that at the expense of my neighbor's going up? Absolutely not. If the reval is done correctly, or re-done every 2 years or so we could have an accurate idea of real market values. | ||
| Fairtax01 |
Townie - I am sorry. I felt like you attacked me personally and not Fairtax. I don't know where anyone works. I was under the impression you work at home. | ||
| Njjoseph |
Townie, please don't go! I enjoyed reading your postings, and this board is as much yours as mine. Please stay. | ||
| Nilmiester |
I can see why Fairtax would think Townie was someone whose taxes were not comparable to his neigbors and why not? If someone taxes were way below their neighbors, you wouldn't see them wanting a new reval. The records are all in town hall so there is no secret when comparing properties and that's what you have to do, compare! "Comps". As far as outing people on the board, I have seen it done to ucanthandle, fringe, jur050 and mem to name a few. But I guess it depends on who is doing the outing whether thats right or not. | ||
| Njjoseph |
My valuation is above my neighbors -- I'm the highest in my VCS, and the 2nd highest on my street. I don't want to see a new reval. My valuation is appropriate for my house and the area in which I live. I assume Townie feels her house is valued correctly as well. | ||
| Rheims |
Come on, Townie, don't go. |
