Things That Make You Go Hmmmmm....

[flyingvan]

    Through the 'Green Building' program, the powers that be are pushing for more energy efficient homes.  Good.  Taxes and fees are based largely on square footage.  OK, makes more sense than most things in the tax code I suppose. 
     But the square footage is based on the exterior dimensions of the house, not the interior---making an incentive for thinner, less efficient walls.  The smaller the house (like most of the builds you see here) the bigger that difference is.  The Cuyamaca Cottage is '716' square feet, framed with 2x6's.  Actual interior floor space (ignoring interior walls) is (roughly) 618 square feet.  If I had framed with less efficient 2x4 walls the interior would be 638 square feet for the same tax bill.  In a tiny home that 20 square feet would go to good use; I'm thinking it's the kegerator I'll never have.
     No regrets about the 2x6 walls, especially my giant balloon framed wall that would probably flex in the high winds.  But if the taxes were based on interior square footage it'd give a little more incentive for thicker, more energy efficient walls.

[MushCreek]

My contractor actually successfully argued that since only the inside of his ICF home is heated, he would only pay taxes on the 'heated square footage'. ICF walls are typically a foot thick, so it adds up. We'll see what happens when my place goes on the tax rolls.

[Huge29]

Good luck with that one!  I have not personally appealed taxes before, but have heard of many accounts from coworkers and these people with the assessor's officer certainly were not hired for their common sense skills.  We just bought our cabin in April including all of the furnishings, worth no less than $40k, which is not a part of the real property, as we all know, yet we could only get the assessed value down to the purchase price of $400k even though it would really only be about $360k.  We should have reworded the contract to better address that...  They had it assessed for $480k for the past four years, apparently they had not seen a headline about a real estate value decrease in the last five years...  The best part of it all is that no matter what common sense you are able to impose it all starts over each year with no recognition of the previous year's appeal. 
You will likely get just as much satisfaction out of banging your head against the wall with these types. 

[flyingvan]

As long as the people that get to decide how much you pay are the ones receiving that pay, we're not gonna get anywhere with reducing taxes.  Add to that a clueless population that doesn't realize how higher taxes hurt them even when someone else has to pay them, and there's really no hope for change...