The “don’t ask, don’t tell” of taxation

I was raised in a small New England town, where municipal snowplow drivers cleared snow from elderly residents’ driveways in return for a cup of coffee at 2 a.m. Town Meeting is a proper noun in New England —a Saturday in March or early April when residents voted on the town’s funding and organization.

Such as how much money to provide the volunteer fire department for new radios.

It was with that in mind that a resident approached the town selectmen one year as they were preparing the budget for vote, and asked to have $5,000 added for radios the firefighters so desperately, he said, needed.

“It’s a good idea,” the First Selectman responded, “but times are tight. Where will we get the money?”

“We go to Town Meeting and vote on it, and the town comes up with it,” the fellow replied.

“Do you pay taxes?” the selectman asked.

“You’re darn right, I do!” the man exclaimed, with the air of someone who had been deeply insulted by the mere question. “Pay ‘em early, too. Every year.”

“And what do you suppose happens to the money?”

“I dunno,” the fellow said. “I give it to Arlene (the town treasurer) and she takes care of it.”

True story.

We humans tend to vote for candidates who promise not to raise taxes. We expect certain services from our government but we give little thought to how they are funded and we often think of them as free if the money is coming from the state or federal level.

The superintendent of a district I once covered told his board that a new middle school would be free to the taxpayers. The district, he explained, already had exceeded its debt ceiling above which the state would make all the payments.

A few years back, a township nearby to my current home was faced with a state order to build a new wastewater treatment facility. It was a necessary endeavor, brought on by an influx of people who had surpassed available ground capacity to filter the effluent coming from their homes.

The opposing side was led by a resident who had retired from work in the big city. The lady argued that she and others like her were on a “fixed income” and could not afford to pay for the new facility.

Finally, the township qualified for a grant, the treatment plant was built, and the township promptly sold the brand new plant to a huge and getting huger interstate water company, effectively limiting the township’s need to control future costs.

Another year, the county was faced with a need to find some new money. I think it was to help pay for a new prison, but I may be mixing stories. At any rate, the debate hinged on a one-mil tax increase — roughly one dollar for every dollar of assessed property value.

A home assessed at $250,000 would be taxed an additional $250. It’s not nothing, but a gent showed up at a county commissioners meeting to loudly complain that the budgeteers were proposing a more than 30-percent tax increase in a single year.

There’s a word battle going on in Kerr County Texas as officials try to convince the world at large that nothing could have prevented the loss of treasure and life in the floods that occurred last week.

But the truth has been seeping out that voters had elected local government officials that kept their promises to not spend money on wasteful things like flood warning sirens.

There is plenty to dislike about property tax. What is most objectionable is that it is based on the perceived value of my home to a prospective buyer if I wanted to sell, which I don’t.

Politicians seem to love property tax because it is a delayed tax that we pay once a year, complain about, and generally forget — just like income tax. It also is a great campaign tool candidates can promise to “fix” and then ignore once they are elected.

Until that changes, it is how we fix our roads and bridges, and buy radios for the fire department, and sometimes to warn us to get out of the way of impending disaster.

Text and Images ©2025 John Messeder. John is an award-winning environmental storyteller, nemophilist and social anthropologist living in Gettysburg, PA. He may be contacted at john@johnmesseder.com