Monday, July 26, 2010

Homesteads and Other Sources of Tax Income - NYTimes.com

Homesteads and Other Sources of Tax Income - NYTimes.comAround the nation, cities and towns facing grim budget circumstances are grasping at unlikely — some would say desperate — means to bolster their shrunken tax bases. Like Beatrice, places like Dayton, Ohio, and Grafton, Ill., are giving away land for nominal fees or for nothing in the hope that it will boost the tax rolls and cut the lawn-mowing bills.

In Boca Raton, Fla., which faces a budget gap of more than $7 million, leaders are thinking about expanding the city’s size and annexing neighborhoods as an antidote. Sure, more residents would cost more in services, but officials hope the added tax revenues will more than make up for it.

And leaders in Manchester, N.H., and Concord, Mass., are taking an approach that might have once seemed politically unthinkable. They are re-examining whether their communities’ nonprofit organizations really deserve to be tax-free.

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Municipal promotion of CIDs is about money, and now cities are getting even more desperate. Soon they will be selling the right to rename the city. BP-Ville! Microsoftburg!

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