We have all heard the refrains that property taxes are regressive, too large, outrageous, unsustainable. On it goes. Unfortunately, when we have these discussions, context is very important and often lost. These statements should be framed in a simple formula: What is your effective property tax rate? Meaning, what percentage of your gross or net income goes to pay your property taxes? For most of my working life, that number has been between 6 and 9 %. Now, in semi-retirement, those percentages are increasing.

Regardless, I think that contributing between six and nine cents of every dollar I earn to pay for the things many folks take for granted is a fair and equitable contribution to the common good. Our taxes pay for schools, police, fire, roads, libraries, parks and waste management. However, for many of our citizens, due to the simple act of aging, their effective property taxes have risen into the double digits. At what level — 20%, 30%, 40% — does this arcane system of property tax become inequitable and egregious?

The next time someone says their taxes are out of control, ask them what their effective tax rate is. Perhaps, it will open the door to an actual conversation that can bring about a fairer, more equitable tax system, a system linked to taxpayers’ actual ability to pay rather than an outdated system of taxation that made more sense when we were a nation of farmers.

Rob Nadeau

Hopkinton