MNQuilter

Wow! This kind of info is always interesting to me. I live in the Minneapolis Metro area, and we have a 2200sf house. On about 1/4 acre I guess. It is in town with neighbors on all sides. We pay about $2600 in taxes. Not bad, but not great either. Unfortunately, this area has been really hard hit with forclosures, like 4 of the 6 houses around us were foreclosed on, so our value is down the tubes. I would guess that if I were to appeal the taxes, we could probably get them lowered considering the prices houses are going for around here.

Honey

We have a good sized house (2300 sq. ft.) on a lot that you could spit across and our tax bill this year is $2200. Not nearly as much as a lot of you pay, but a lot for our little echonomicaly(sp) depressed town. Wisconsin has horrible tax rates and going higher all the time.

LovingIzabella

Like Billy said the cost of living here is through the roof but I am in upstate NY not "the hood" so my home was only $200,000 versus the $500 (although if you ask me it wasn't worth 80K as it is just a 3bedroom ranch style home) :-)
If you get a commuter monthly pass it is something to the effect of about $500 for the month....always something here
Hugs
April

LovingIzabella

Medical here is high but we have great coverage. I have never had problems with having any kind of medical testing or cancer screenings or anything. My employer pays 92.5% of my families medical benefits and I pay the other 7.5%. The cost of the insurance per month for a family right now is $1300.00. My copay is $15 for normal doctor and $25 for a specialist. I also have higher copays for the ER and for surgical procedures but in my eyes definetly better than not having it.
Hugs
April

CrystalKicks

BACK AND HAPPY TO REPORT!!

They lowered them....by almost a grand...Im actually paying less than I did two years ago!!! Wahoo more quilting moolah for me :)

Lisa_wanna_b_quilter

Yeah for you! That $1000 will come in handy.

Lostn51

I have always wanted to move to Maine or somewhere close to that area. I have always seen photos of the wilderness up there and I just drool. Maybe one day I can come up and check it out just to see but for now I am just happy to be a Tennessee Hillbilly!

Billy

MistyMarie

I found out that the value for tax purposes is actually based on home sales from two years ago, not current. They update the value every three years here, so I am paying more right now than I should, but it will come out in the wash down the road. As a public school teacher in one of the worst funded states for education in the nation, I don't quibble over what I pay. My school district has to cut 18 million dollars from it's budget this next year and a total of 34 million over the next three. Right now I teach three classes a day (95 minutes each) with 36 kids per class. My school of close to 1000 kids is losing 5 teachers. That means that next year, my class sizes will be around 42 kids per class. I teach 7th grade literacy and have a class of special needs students integrated with advanced students. Differentiating for the needs in my classroom is next to impossible.
Now, as a parent, I cannot imagine my children getting a quality education with 42 kids in the classroom. Not only that, but we are going to have two furlough days (which means two days less to plan for educating the students), have a pay freeze, and have less sick days. (I am sitting here typing this as I sneeze and cough, playing hooky because I am too sick to go to school from a cold I got from a student!) So, when I look at taxes that go to support education, I feel like I am paying back for my own education and helping to provide a decent income for the teachers who are overwhelmed and not given enough resources to adequately teach. (I have NO textbook, only 2000 copies a month I can make, and I purchase most of the educational resources I do use out of my own pocket.)

Ironically, I also pay close to $11,000 a year for my own children to go to a private school because I refuse to place them in a public school where about 38% of the students do not speak English as their first language.

BKinCO

I hear you! The CO Education system is really going down the tubes. I am SO grateful that my kids are at the stage they are at right now with the budget cuts~~oldest is Fast-tracking an entire year at college on the state's tab, middle is in 9th grade in a ginormous high school, but he's the one kid who can handle it and the little one is in a public charter school, K-8 with 200 kids....we cap those classes at 21. It's fantastic..... But, believe me, I know just how luck we are!!! A lot of Coloradans are not so lucky :(

Barbm

we just got notice that our county taxes are going up 15% this year. So our new tax bill is about 5K a year.

We have 34 acres, not prime area, a 2,300 sq ft house, not custom, and a pole barn and pavilion. Certainly not a mcmansion.

we're footing the bill for 3 judges and a commissioner who raped the county. (total of 23 people in the county that took bribes). The good ole boy network alive and well in Luzerne county.

I'd leave but hubby won't.