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

2 years ago by Aatube to c/til

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]

ptz 79 points 2 years ago

Racism shouldn't exist, but if it's going to, it should at least be expensive.

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InverseParallax 5 points 2 years ago

Yeah but we're paying for most of it...

They should build a wall and make fox news pay for it.

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jubilationtcornpone 42 points 2 years ago

Lol. That whole project is a grift operation on par with the Kremlin.

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givesomefucks 17 points 2 years ago

100x

(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

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BassTurd 22 points 2 years ago

The tax burden went up 75x and the property was reassessed 100x higher. Both are true.

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Dkarma 7 points 2 years ago

I hate these right wing shitheads as much as the next rational person but this is bullshit.

How the fuck is a fence considered developing land? How are they assessing square footage? The idea that there's increased value there is nuts.

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Dragonstaff 4 points 2 years ago

With no information, the blurb is almost designed to be infuriating. But remember that they didn't just drop a wall there. We're talking about grading and building roads for heavy equipment to get there, probably storage, and who knows what else. My money says that was the grift in the first place: scam Trump voters into paying to turn a worthless piece of land into something usable.

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ReluctantMuskrat 4 points 2 years ago

It's keeping people off their land, as designed. I'm sure people buying property on the border do in fact find it beneficial not to have immigrants coming across on their property. Might even lower insurance too if it's viewed to reduce risk of liability.

Funny that they used donations to make their property more desirable and surprise Pikachu face its worth more now and taxes went up!

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Stovetop 1 point 2 years ago
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lemming741 1 point 2 years ago

If I put up a privacy fence, my assessment is going up.
If a farmer puts up a cattle fence, it's an improvement.
What's the difference here?

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Kusimulkku 1 point 2 years ago

The two things you mentioned actually benefit the property. Can't see the same being true for the border wall

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lemming741 1 point 2 years ago

What's stopping me from calling my white picket fence a border wall?

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Aatube 5 points 2 years ago

I am not a lawyer, but I don't think the tax burden is 100%.

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givesomefucks 13 points 2 years ago

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

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protist 8 points 2 years 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.

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Aatube 0 points 2 years ago

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

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givesomefucks 2 points 2 years ago

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.

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mkwt 13 points 2 years ago

What they're saying is this:

  1. That land used to have nothin much on it, so it was cheap land, and the property taxes were low.
  2. 30 million was spent on building the private wall. I don't think this money came from the land owner. (This is the crowd funded Trump Wall, right?)
  3. With the fancy new wall on it, the property is now appraised at around 20 million (or maybe whatever it was plus 20 million). Whether it's 75 times or 100 times what it was before is not super important. The point is it went from not much to quite a bit.
  4. Property taxes went up in accordance with the new valuation.
  5. Property owner is probably not wealthy enough to pay the taxes, so big picture he can't continue to own the property.
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Crashumbc 2 points 2 years ago

The wall was privately paid for, it's not part of Trump's wall.

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Aatube 3 points 2 years ago

It is privately paid for and part of Trump's wall.

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Aatube 1 point 2 years ago

i understand that, but that's what's already in the article i posted, and i don't see how that's what they're saying from something about what increasing about a percentage means. i also understand that it's not important, but i don't like being confused as i have a(n ir)rational fear of dementia

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bobburger 2 points 2 years ago

I wouldn't worry about it, you're absolutely correct that the property value increase and the tax burden increase are not linear at all. The person who attempted to correct you is pretty notorious for being aggressively wrong.

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JasonDJ 11 points 2 years ago

nelson_haha.png.wav

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saywhatisabigw 11 points 2 years ago

The wall didn't add that much value to the property. It's overly improved in a non standard way. For instance. No one would buy it for what they assessed it's value.

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