
Black families pay significantly higher property taxes than white families - cs702
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/07/02/black-property-tax/
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pmdulaney
My hunch is that the assessors are coming up with their numbers based on the
quality of the property and are fair in that regard, but when it comes time to
sell the property there is some preference among buyers (call it racism if you
will) not to live in a black neighborhood. The assessors in that case should
use historical sales data to adjust down the valuation of the property. But
could that end up hurting black homeowners in the long run? It's hard to say.

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covidworrier
"there is some preference among buyers (call it racism if you will) not to
live in a black neighborhood"

I will. That is racism.

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Ghjklov
Is it? On the other side of things, might black people want to avoid majority
white neighborhoods where the white police will more likely target them as
well? Might black people prefer black neighborhood themselves so that they can
live amongst people they understand with a culture they're familiar with? Are
those black people racist?

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missedthecue
Probably. But it depends how you define the word. Discrimination based on skin
color? Then yes.

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Ghjklov
Freedom of association is important for all people, I believe. If Asian people
have been victimized by other groups in American society, they should be
allowed to congregate and live with each other, where they will be able to
have the power and influence to protect their people and interests. If black
people cannot trust the white police force to not kill them, they should be
allowed to move to black cities with black police who will less likely kill
them. And if whites feel that they cannot live amongst blacks due to their
poor relations with eachother, who are we to stop them from leaving? Because
forcing two opposing groups to live with each other only breeds more violence
and suffering. I wouldn't shame them or call them racist. It's pragamatism at
worst. You could bring up statistics all you want to say why x or y is not the
case. But that doesn't matter to individuals. People decide these things on
their own, in their best interest, for their family's safety.

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missedthecue
I don't disagree. No free person should be compelled to live or not live in a
specific area.

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usaar333
Note that California was excluded due to prop 13 heavily weakening
reassessments. I generally dislike the law (favors old homeowners over new),
but I had never considered until reading this article that removing power from
property assessors could itself lead to more socially just outcomes on
different metrics.

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x3n0ph3n3
There are some major issues with prop 13 in that it allows people to set up a
paper company to own a piece of property, then sell the paper company rather
than the property in order to avoid tax reassessment.

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foogazi
The loophole is that properties owned by corporations are not reassessed when
the corporations are sold

There is already a measure on the ballot to reform prop 13
[https://www.sfchronicle.com/politics/article/California-
meas...](https://www.sfchronicle.com/politics/article/California-measure-to-
reform-Proposition-13-15304408.php)

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quesoviejo
Seems like the article starts with the conclusion that the disparity is
explicitly racially motivate, and works backward.

Why not work from a premise that the outcome is disparate but the reasons
might be more nuanced? (that was rhetorical. I know why they didn't) What
about:

\- Assessors don't properly account for disparate crime levels for properties
that are similar on paper?

\- Minorities are priced out of gentrifying neighborhoods because of rapid
price increases. This is why Prop 13 happened in CA in the first place, so
middle class folk wouldn't be taxed out of their homes when they exploded in
value.

\- Minorities don't know they can appeal their assessment. Who's
responsibility is it to know that? Is there evidence that a state actively
attempts to hide this info?

\- If they control for race, would the numbers show that white people who live
in similarly high crime areas also pay disproportionate property tax? Could it
be that black and Hispanic people disproportionately live in higher crime
areas, and it is the lack of including crime rates in neighborhoods when
assessing taxes is a primary driver if this effect?

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Simulacra
I thought this was really the crux of the whole thing: “ While the analysis is
not designed to show “active” discrimination, it cannot be ruled out, Howard
said. But, he said, “you can equally tell the story that assessors don’t
realize how unequally the burden is landing along racial and ethnic lines.”

