Comments on: Lake Street Is For Tax Lovers

By: Molly P.

Molly P. — Thu, 02 Feb 2006 02:24:59 +0000

Hmmm…I’m just surprised to hear that Mike’s property taxes would go up by 50 percent this year.

By: moe

moe — Wed, 01 Feb 2006 15:02:28 +0000

monster.com – that’s the address for those of you that want to make extra money.

By: scs

scs — Wed, 01 Feb 2006 13:56:37 +0000

Good point MunsingW. Do property owners pass on the actual tax bill here to commercial renters? From my past experience in another metro area property owners can pass on a portion of the actual taxes. Does that happen here? Just curious. I was involved with a not-for-profit arts organization a looong time ago and their lease pretty much screwed them if the neighborhood ever became halfway decent, between the increase in the rent and the taxes.

By: Kevin from Minneapolis

Kevin from Minneapolis — Wed, 01 Feb 2006 04:25:54 +0000

Spaceman, you're right, everything gets more expensive. But in a few years I'll have more money, too.

Truth-in-taxation reports = waste of time. No school or city is going to let some silly citizen stand in the way of spending more money. Get real!

Here's the address for the Dept. of Revenue for those of you who want to keep less of your money: Minnesota Revenue, Mail Station 0010, St. Paul, MN 55145-0010.

By: richg

richg — Wed, 01 Feb 2006 00:54:09 +0000

Molly, toward mid-fall every property owner gets a truth in taxation report estimating your property taxes for the next year and explaining why they went up so damn much. Working for a school district, I get to hear a lot of complaints when those things go out…

By: Molly P.

Molly P. — Wed, 01 Feb 2006 00:05:55 +0000

Mike, what Truth in Taxation report are you talking about?

By: mike s

mike s — Tue, 31 Jan 2006 22:28:05 +0000

Go wait by the mailbox. I’ll stop by in a bit.

By: pat

pat — Tue, 31 Jan 2006 22:14:29 +0000

you can always send more money to the government. please do so my taxes won’t go up

By: mike s

mike s — Tue, 31 Jan 2006 21:59:29 +0000

If I remember correctly, the Truth in Taxation report indicated the property taxes for my house (8 or 9 blocks south of one of the properties mentioned in the article) were going to go up something like 50 or 60% this year. Luckily, I am one of those “Happy to Pay for a Better Minnesota” people. I’d pay more if they could do a better job of catching the asshats who throw up graffiti all over 38th Street.

By: MunsingW

MunsingW — Tue, 31 Jan 2006 21:49:03 +0000

Nope, not a conspiracy.

The property values along Lake Street were very depressed. A lot of people did a lot of work to clean it up and make it better. Property values increased. Property taxes are tied to values, so they have to go up too.

The ones to feel sorry for, by the way, are not the property owners, who can sell their property for a tidy profit if the property taxes go up too much, but the renters, who have worked hard to build up a business in a particular location, made the property more valuable because of it, but still have no equity stake in that property. When their rents triple, they're the ones that are in a real bind.

That said, property taxes are going up all over the city, and it's probably not good policy to defer some people's taxes and not others.