With the housing market meltdown, we are seeing more
proposals for across-the-board caps on property tax rates -- a bad idea that
delivers most of the tax benefits to wealthier property owners. Instead,
a better approach are Property
Tax Circuit Breakers, which limit property taxes to a percentage of a
taxpayer's income, while fully taxing the property of wealthy homeowners.
A
variation on the circuit breaker idea are programs that defer payment of property tax increases
for certain homeowners until the property is sold, allowing owners to wait
until the profits from selling the land make paying the taxes less of a
burden. As well, a key strategy for progressives should be to expand homestead exemptions and other
tax relief programs to include more working families,
