In a city that has raised taxes by almost 25% over the past half-decade, the mayor has made the obvious suggestion: use your home's equity to hand over your wealth to keep the city's gravy train going.
You will own nothing and be happy.
⚡South Portland Mayor Misha Pride tells seniors to take out a reverse mortgage to afford the city's sharp increase in property taxes. pic.twitter.com/auJK1pzAdt
— The Maine Wire (@TheMaineWire) September 23, 2024
It's a brilliant solution if you think about it. You worked all your life to buy your house outright, happy that you can pass along the value to the next generation.
But really, wouldn't you rather keep the government bureaucrats happy instead? The children of the community are the children of the community, which means that your children belong to the government, just as your home should too.
During discussion on the proposal of allocating additional funds to the tax relief fund, South Portland Mayor Misha Pride described the “perfect storm” in the city that led to recent revaluation causing the spike in property taxes.
“This is very much a perfect storm,” Mayor Pride said. “We live in a coastal community, it’s very attractive to live here. And unfortunately, that means lots of people are buying lots of residential properties.”
“It’s not that commercial is necessarily doing poorly, it’s that there isn’t enough buying and selling of commercial properties to warrant reviewing and raising those percentages…so it’s a really difficult position to be in,” he continued.
Residential property sales outpacing commercial sales has resolution in property value growth on the residential side, meaning that under the revaluation, residential property owners are now bearing more of the property tax burden.
The mayor expressed his empathy for residents dealing with the rising costs, noting that his own property taxes had steadily increased over the past five years.
“I’m really sad, and, you know, my taxes are going up too — and have every year for the last five years, my valuation’s gone up every year for the last five years,” Pride said. “I didn’t have the jump that a lot people saw because mine has been steadily going up every year.”
Then, in addressing the financial pressures the taxes are placing on the city’s seniors, Mayor Pride made a suggestion that triggered an audible gasp and agitation among those present at the August meeting: that elderly homeowners in South Portland take out a reverse mortgage on their homes.
Notice that link in the middle of the quote? City directs $150,000 to help migrants find permanent housing.
Hmm. I wonder if there is some correlation.
This is exactly what you should expect in modern-day America. Governments spending money to help migrants while screwing their own citizens.
Is it any wonder that people are angry? We are constantly being asked to sacrifice our own futures for the benefit of people who aren't citizens. We are paying the freight for others while being asked to surrender what we have.
If it's true that migrants benefit us so much, why do we hear stories like this all the time?
Harris also vowed to expand "deferred action" programs to protect select groups of undocumented immigrants from deportation.
— Alex Thompson (@AlexThomp) September 23, 2024
Her campaign estimated the plan would protect more than 6 million people from deportation.
Expect to see a lot more of these stories, thanks to the Harris/Biden policies of the past three years.
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