Why a Christian Should Never Vote for a Property Tax Increase

It is not surprising at all that as we Americans have abandoned our Christian cultural roots we have lost the understanding of the great individual rights to life, liberty, and property which necessarily flow from the Christian moral law. These rights which are all over our founding documents and state constitutions were fundamental to our political system as designed. If the Natural Law does exist, it exists for all time, in all of creation, and over all people; and these same rights are critical to maintaining a just system and all the blessings that come from it. I think it was John Adams that said, the right to property meant that no man could lose his property except by his own act or fault. The individual held his/her own property rights exclusively and was (and is) accountable to God for his stewardship. In our day, property taxes stand opposed to this fundamental right and we have instead transitioned to a collectivist view of rights. Today society can, with a majority or super majority vote, effectively take some of your property through property taxes. How did the neighborhood get this right to your property? An ownership interest is clearly assumed in the process, since the collective has some (or if you fail to pay, all) rights to your property. This collectivist view of property rights is contrary to the Natural Law and is simply collective theft. The bible condemns going along with a mob and violating justice, so clearly a majority deciding something is right does not make it so. When we, as Christians, vote in support of a property tax increase, we are part of a collective theft. If you want to support a school give them your own property, not your neighbors.

The left sells property tax as a collection method claiming it a just system, but the opposite is true. Property taxes impact the poor far more than the rich. The tax affects the cost of the essential basics of shelter and food. While a primary residence usually has some exemption, rentals do not, and the owners necessarily pass those costs on to those who rent, who are usually the poor. While farm ground has some exemptions, any tax on it is passed on as more expensive food, another essential.

Property taxes are brutal. While the IRS isn’t allowed to touch many of your assets, the local county can kick you out of your house and off your land if you are too poor to pay the debt that others have collectively assigned to it. You can be debt free in every other respect, and still held liable for something you never agreed to. This is critical to understand, since when the chronic economic trouble we are in intensifies, our incomes could go to zero, our asset values could crater, but the debt we owe would tend to maintain its size or grow. When our neighbors begin to lose their houses and land to this collective evil, where will you stand?

The system is great at cover up, as well. Since most people pay their property taxes as part of their mortgage, we will never know how many ended up losing their homes because of the added cost of the tax portion of those payments.

When a government, a system, a majority, or a mob begins depriving people of one of life’s essentials, it has crossed a line very close to murder. If we lend support through silence and inaction, we become passive participants to the theft, and He who judges the hearts and souls of men will see it (Proverbs 24:11-12).

While our founding documents contain a philosophy of government that reflects Christian assumptions, we have in practice transitioned to a socialist form of government. We are not becoming socialist. We have instead long been socialist. A socialist state matures into bankruptcy. We are bankrupt. If we had been faithful to the political philosophy found in the Declaration of Independence, the state would not have the power to bankrupt us. To see what we now have instead, look up the ten planks of communism and see how many we have. The assumption behind property tax is that the collective holds an ownership interest in your property. The question we should ask ourselves is, where are the limits to this collectivism? Can the collective claim the food you have set aside for emergency if it decides you have too much? Would a vote make that ok too? As it stands now, the collective will claim your property if you lose your job and can’t pay your taxes, and that already is evil. These questions become all the more important as we see the government taking us implacably toward a fiscal crisis of historically unprecedented proportions.
http://chumly.com/n/e742eb