When a municipality collects property tax what does that tax cover?

[Winterblues]

Are there basic services the municplaity should provide? Is fire protection one of those basic services? If a house is outside of any municipality and is not subject to property tax then it must fend for itself or form a neighborhood alliance to aid one another..This is basically another post about the fire dept and whether every house should be covered. Not every house should be covered if the house is outside the municiplaity, however, once the fire dept shows up on the scene, it would IMO be immoral to not help put out a fire...

[Tansy_Gold]

1. It depends on what the municipality decides to provide

Every municipality is different. Just in Arizona -- and every state is different too -- some communities have their own fire departments, others use fire districts which are separate taxing authorities, others contract with private companies. Same with police protection, street maintenance, water and sewage services.

There is no single mandated standard, and communities can change their levels of service whenever they want.


I'm not saying I agree with this, but this is the way it is.



TG, NTY

[shraby]

2. I'd have to check, but county taxes probably take care of

fire protection in most places.

[Gaedel]

5. Urban versus rural

In built up areas, fire protection is an absolute necessity since a fire in one house can quickly spread to other homes and businesses in the same city.

In rural areas, a house fire or a barn fire usually affects only the single structure.

Taxes cover what the locality thinks is important.

Apparently in this rural county, the electorate does not feel that they need a full-time or taxpayer supported volunteer fire service.

They do allow their residents to "contract with" the city taxpayer supported fire services for self protection.

The city fire services do not have a legal or moral obligation to provide fire services to a county that won't take care of itself.

[uncommon]

3. The taxes fund budgets for schools, police, fire stations,

hospitals, garbage disposal, sewers, road and sidewalk maintenance, parks, libraries, and miscellaneous expenditures.

[Tracer]

4. Taxes cover just about everything a town needs to provide.

In my town the majority goes to the school system. I don't have the exact percentage, but it's right up there at about 85%.

The rest goes to the police and fire department, emergency services, street repair, snowplowing, pensions/health insurance for town workers etc.

No homeowner needs to worry about a house fire not being extinguished. I could add that, although the EMTs will show up rapidly if called, there is an extra charge for ambulance transportation to a hospital.

[AldebTX]

6. Our Municipal Property Taxes

Cover fire and police services. Its part of the City budget. For Cities that do not have the # of people or tax revenue the county picks up the load, if the City taxes at a certain level and still can not afford public safety services.

[DURHAM D]

7. In the beginning ad valorem taxes were designated for and spent on public education.

Now they are mostly spent on everything but public education.

Personally, I wish they would go back to spending it only on the school system.

[Rosie1223]

8. My property tax bill itemizes exactly where my tax $$ is going

I live in a rural area. My tax bill shows the roads fund, school fund, fire protection fund, etc. I know exactly how much money goes to each place.

[DURHAM D]

9. My city would not dare do that - everyone would march on city hall.

I currently live in the south but I am from the midwest originally and the property tax bills in my home state spelled it out and helped keep the city fathers a little more honest. I see you are from the upper midwest also so receiving that info may be a regional thing.