Real Estate taxes..how much of yours goes to schools and what state do you live in?

[FINFAN]

Illinois
ours is 75%..correction I forgot the community college/pension..81.25%

 

[MrPTato]

I'm in New Hampshire-
Local 54%
State 11%

 

[tvguy]

I am in California.
School taxes are a fixed dollar amount per property, not a percentage of my property tax bill.
My property taxes are $2,216 a year.
$152 a year goes to the local K-12 school district.
$114 a year goes to the local community college district.

 

[TwoMisfits]

Illinois
ours is 75%..correction I forgot the community college/pension..81.25%

That is insanity...so your county/city budget actually allocates 81.25% for schools and 18.75% for all other local governmental functions (police, fire, county government staff, libraries, parks, disadvantaged services, etc?)

 

[georgina]

In PA, schools are largely funded by real estate taxes, so the richer districts have better funding. My RE taxes are -

county $793, township $423, school $3395. So, close to 75% for school.

(House is assessed at $189,000 value)

Our local township doesn't pay for garbage collection, fire dept is volunteer, not much if any goes to libraries. There is a 1% income tax for township also, just earned income. County uses sales tax to fund libraries, arts, etc.

Also, the school tax millage is set by each district, so it varies widely. Allegheny county alone has many small districts (over 40 I think?)

 

[FINFAN]

That is insanity...so your county/city budget actually allocates 81.25% for schools and 18.75% for all other local governmental functions (police, fire, county government staff, libraries, parks, disadvantaged services, etc?)

yep

 

[TwoMisfits]

yep

That's broken. I'm reminded of the saying "what can't go on, won't"...

 

[FINFAN]

That's broken. I'm reminded of the saying "what can't go on, won't"...

I live in Illinios..no explanation needed

 

[lanejudy]

That's broken. I'm reminded of the saying "what can't go on, won't"...

I'm certainly no fan of paying high taxes or unnecessary spending by schools or government, but I don't think you can necessarily correlate the % of taxes allocated to schools with excessive spending. You have to keep in mind that different states -- and in some places, even by county or local government -- allocate tax revenue in different ways. Some areas will fund schools entirely by property tax, while other locales may use income tax, personal property tax, sales taxes, lottery proceeds, or other revenue sources. Without having more specifics to the funding formulas, the % of real estate tax that goes to schools vs other uses is not really not an apples-to-apples comparison.

 

[supersnoop]

Texas: property taxes on my house were about $10,000/year. Just over 50% goes to schools.

That gets more complicated since some of that school money goes back to the state, and then the state sends some back from the gas tax and business taxes. Cities are funded by part of that property tax, but also get money from the sales tax.

There are so many variables, I'm not sure what the OP is actually trying to learn. Each state has different methods of generating revenue, different ways to appraise property, and different tax rates. Since all school funding ultimately comes from the citizens, either through your own taxes or the price you pay for goods and services, perhaps the more appropriate question is, how much does your school district spend per year per student? Of course, then you have to consider population density and transportation costs. So, what do you really want to know?

 

[mjonis]

Albany, NY.
Home is assessed at $168,000 (they do a 68.5% assessment value on the "fair market value")

Property Taxes are $2200
School Taxes are $3800

Yep. Ouch is all I can say. Oh, and that's WITH a 25% STAR (School Tax Aid Relief or something) reduction on the School Taxes. And I live in one of the "cheaper" school districts (there's many others that pay even more than that).

By the time I've paid the house off, the taxes will be equal or greater to the mortgage payment, unfortunately. Needless to say I will *not* be retiring in New York.

I'd move, but I have a good job (State job) so I have to wait 23 more years for "full" pension. LOL!. Golden handcuffs as it were.

In contrast my sister lives in Denver, CO and has a 600k house and pays less in taxes than I do.

 

[piccolopat]

I'm in NY, about 50 miles outside of NYC. School taxes are $14K (after our STAR rebate), town and county another $5K. My home is a little larger than average for the area as it was set up as a mother daughter (my MIL passed away 8 years ago and lived downstairs) but it is not a mansion. Paying this much in property taxes (as well as high NY state income taxes) is absurd now while I am working but will be something we need to leave behind when I retire in the next year or so. It makes no sense why NY pays so much more for schools than other parts of the country on a per pupil basis. It's not like we are turning out generation after generation of Einsteins.

 

[crisi]

I'm certainly no fan of paying high taxes or unnecessary spending by schools or government, but I don't think you can necessarily correlate the % of taxes allocated to schools with excessive spending. You have to keep in mind that different states -- and in some places, even by county or local government -- allocate tax revenue in different ways. Some areas will fund schools entirely by property tax, while other locales may use income tax, personal property tax, sales taxes, lottery proceeds, or other revenue sources. Without having more specifics to the funding formulas, the % of real estate tax that goes to schools vs other uses is not really not an apples-to-apples comparison.

Its probably a better comparison to look at per capita student spending - and then where that per capita student spending comes from. Ours varies a lot by school district. Mine is less than 25% of the total property tax bill, but we also fund through the state income tax and lotteries. (Minnesota). Per capita student spending for the district is $10,263. Of that, about $5k of it is direct learning, $1000 is building upkeep, $2000 is special ed. $1000 of it is busing kids around. The remaining grand is sports and activities, administration, career learning (auto shop, etc)

 

[kaseyC]

Illinois
ours is 75%..correction I forgot the community college/pension..81.25%

Ours is about the same. What county are you in? We are in Lake.

 

[FINFAN]

Ours is about the same. What county are you in? We are in Lake.

DuPage

 

[FINFAN]

Texas: property taxes on my house were about $10,000/year. Just over 50% goes to schools.

That gets more complicated since some of that school money goes back to the state, and then the state sends some back from the gas tax and business taxes. Cities are funded by part of that property tax, but also get money from the sales tax.

There are so many variables, I'm not sure what the OP is actually trying to learn. Each state has different methods of generating revenue, different ways to appraise property, and different tax rates. Since all school funding ultimately comes from the citizens, either through your own taxes or the price you pay for goods and services, perhaps the more appropriate question is, how much does your school district spend per year per student? Of course, then you have to consider population density and transportation costs. So, what do you really want to know?

I'm just curious as I hope to not live where I am at forever and research COL in other places (so as to not go from frying pan to fire) since such a big portion of our RE Taxes go toward Education, it got me curious to other areas. Also our state has a ton of school funding crisis, which just makes it a bigger head ~scratcher

 

[chicagodisneyfan]

Ours is about the same. What county are you in? We are in Lake.

I am in Chicago, so Cook County, and 50% of my real estate taxes goes to the Board of Education. My mother is a retired principal in the Chicago Public Schools, so I am paying for her retirement!

 

[Shanti]

That is insanity...so your county/city budget actually allocates 81.25% for schools and 18.75% for all other local governmental functions (police, fire, county government staff, libraries, parks, disadvantaged services, etc?)

Have you ever considered how many more schools there are in each county than there are fire stations, parks, etc? Think of all the kids in that county. Each one of them attends school.

 

[AquaDame]

36.8 cents on the dollar here in Oregon from property taxes but they get funds from a bunch of other places too, general fund, income taxes, marijuana tax, arts tax... and are constantly putting more programs for millions on the ballot. Next up for May is another bond for 790 million.

"The bond won’t come cheap to homeowners. It will cost $1.40 per $1,000 of assessed home value for the first four years and less after that, with an average of $0.68 per $1,000 over 30 years. That shakes out to $280 for each of the first four years for a homeowner with a home tax-assessed at $200,000, and an average of $136 annually over 30 years."

 

[DebbieB]

I live in the Pittsburgh suburbs, I pay 3 separate property taxes:
Allegheny County $827
Borough $851
School Dist $3,248