this post was submitted on 09 Oct 2024

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TIL the crowdsourced US-Mexico border wall added over $20 million in taxable land improvement to a private farm, increasing the tax burden by 75 times (en.wikipedia.org)

submitted 2 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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The 638 acres (2.58 km2) of land [We Build the Wall] built on is part of farmland that belongs to Neuhaus and Sons, and the wall added over $20 million in taxable land improvement, increasing the tax burden by 75 times. In January 2020, Fisher Industries started a lease-purchase agreement with Neuhaus and Sons for the land under the wall, but had not completed the ownership transfer by their court hearing on December 12, 2020, citing a problematic land survey by Fisher. Fisher's attorney, Mark Courtois, was hopeful the US government would become owners of both the wall and land. U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Public Affairs Officer Thomas Gresback said that the wall was privately paid for and on private property, and CBP does not have anything to do with the project. CBP is constructing its RGV-03 project wall outside the floodplain 0.3 miles (0.48 km) away.[66] As of July 2021, the property had been reassessed at 100 times its original value, and Fisher was hoping to sell a 3-mile section of wall (4.8 km) that had cost $30 million to build.[67]

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 months ago (2 children)

It's not ...

100x means it's 100 times as much, you add two zeros to the last number.

Did you think the "75 times" also meant it increased by 75%? Because that's not what it means either.

Like if it was $100 and went up 75 times the original amount, and the new amount would be $7500. To go up 100 times the original it would be $10,000

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

What you quoted says the property was assessed at 100x its original value. The total taxes owed is a different number than the assessed value.

In Texas we have a variety of taxing entities that may overlap a property, city, county, school district, community college district, hospital district, municipal utility districts, etc. Each adopt different tax rates and have defined percentages of valuations they're allowed to tax. Point being, taxes owed do not scale linearly with assessed property valuations.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

My impression of tax systems is that bracketed taxes are fairer and most taxes are bracketed. I could go and search up the Texas taxes, but I'm a lazy couch ~~potato~~ book.

The article also cites https://myrgv.com/local-news/2020/12/12/fate-of-private-border-wall-unclear "by more than 7,500%", so I trust that the journalists did their journaling.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

by more than 7,500%”, so I trust that the journalists did their journaling.

The "%" sign adds two zeros...

So 75x is the same as 7500%

I'm not trying to argue I'm trying to help you. If you don't want help. That's cool, I can stop trying.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago

I think we have a misunderstanding here, but I don't know where. Here's my impression of the conversation:

You said the property tax actually was 100x.
I said that's 100x the land value; the tax rate isn't necessarily 100% of the land value. Basically what BassTurd said.
You said even if it was a different percentage, it increases linearly. (You then said something about increasing by 75x isn't the same as becoming 75 times the original. To that I'll say 1+75≠100 either.)
I said it's probably a bracket, so it probably doesn't increase linearly, hence about 25x/26x of the value didn't linear it. I do not understand the next reply.