Richard Urban for DC | Property taxes more than double for many DC residents

Property taxes more than double for many DC residents

2. April 2010 by rurban 0 Comments

Many DC home owners have seen property taxes increased as much as 220% (more than doubled) between the Sept 2009 bill and the March 2010 bill. This is due to the Fiscal Year 2010 budget Support Emergancy Act of 2009 (Bill # B18-0409; change to section 47-864), which all Council members voted for on 7/31/2009. This legislation removed the 10% cap on property tax increases by putting in place a 40% of assessed value minimum. Yet, at the same time as those struggling to make ends meet due to the tight economy, etc. tens of millions of tax breaks are given to corporations, we are paying middle school students to go to school, and tens of millions of dollars have been stolen and also lost due to cost overruns, such as that in the summer youth program just two summers ago (30 million dollar overrun, and many youth paid who did not even worked, or worked many less hours). Contact your Councilmember to demand an immediate legislative fix to this egregious hit on the small taxpayer while giving huge breaks to corporations, as well as failing to control irresponsible spending.
I will be writing more about which Councilmember(s) were responsible for inserting the 40 percent minimum language. Did anyone do research to see what the effect whould be on long time homeowners? Presumablly these are the folks that the City Council would like to stay in DC, not move out to the suburbs.