Last week, Wes posted about housing prices in Williamstown, which generated into a rather long conversation in his comments. At one point I felt like Southview and I were just commenting back and forth so I proposed we continue the conversation at my blog. Jack took me up on that offer and left a couple of comments and my husband even chimed in.

I’ve had varying forms of this conversation online for years, and I know I’m in the minority on this. I’m opposed to rent controlled apartments, generally against government subsidized housing for all but the elderly and infirm, and am against a town tax policy that artificially caps property taxes for retired people on fixed incomes. I think it is bad for towns and cities in generally, because it discourages growth and renewal, and undercuts its tax system. Schools are hot topics, but isn’t just schools that need to be competitive and have sufficient funding. We need firefighters who can drive working trucks, and ambulance drivers and EMTs who are competent and professional. We need police who won’t be trying to make up for low salaries by taking bribes and streets that aren’t filled with potholes. It seems to me that we need all property owners to pay their share in today’s dollars, not 1966 dollars or 1980 dollars or whatever they paid for their home when they bought it.

But the bottom line, for me anyway, is that it seems incredibly un-democratic, to write a tax code that favors one group of home owners over another.