A firm, which lobbies against high property taxes, sends a memo to lawmakers, asking them to reduce the burden on homeowners.
Seniors are forced to uproot and move out of state, away from longtime friends and family, due to their struggle to pay our state's high property taxes. That's according to Michael Birkley, Legislative Director of the Wisconsin Property Taxpayers, Inc. He says when seniors have no other option they might go with a reverse mortgage.
The reverse mortgage concept is a good one, Berkley says, if homeowners have enough equity to be able to survive, they are already over 80-years old, and their life expectancy is short. Otherwise they could run out of money and have no place to live because they are selling a little bit of their house everyday.
Berkley says hyper-inflationary property tax increases cut down on the available family income for things like medication, food and heat. Berkley wants lawmakers to freeze levy increases to the rate of inflation, increase the existing School Levy Credit by at least 100-million dollars, and increase the threshold and funding for the Homestead Tax Credit.
NOTE: Wisconsin Property Taxpayers, Inc. is a lobbying firm, devoted exclusively to property tax relief. It's been around for 20 years. Michael Birkley, Legislative Director, says his group represents about 15,500 property taxpayers, farmers, commercial businesses and individual homeowners who want to see something done to hold the line on their property taxes.
AUDIO: Jackie Johnson report (1:30 MP3)
