This is going to hurt

Yesterday, I was in the Dentist office having my teeth cleaned.  I was happy to have it done, given the fact that a relative had called my wife saying that he was in need of  major dental work, the kind where a second mortgage is necessary.

The quoted amount got my blood to run cold, and I remarked that I thought I would call the dentist as my cleaning was probably due and in my mind I thought I could probably avoid the calamity that befell our relative.

I went and was finished with the hygienist and moved over to see the dentist.  He was in conversation with another patient and the dentist brought me into the conversation  as we all live in a neighboring town.  I gave my opinion about the declining fortunes of a town dependent on malls for a substantial number of  its tax ratable.   Our town had two Macy's Department Stores, a K Mart, a Sears and myriad others.  But you get the picture for we now have a ruinous glut of retail space that will likely go unfilled for years to come.


The patient related how he and his wife had many years before purchased her parents home which sat on lake front.  They made modest improvements over the years, remarking that there was nothing crazy about the improvements.  But he now said the taxes have steadily climbed each and every year of ownership.  Both he and his wife work good jobs , but he said that there has not been any income increase in several years  and they had come up against a wall.  He related that his two children , twins,  had one more year of high school and that at that time they would sell the home and move away.  He could not pull them out at this time in their lives.   He complained that that the property taxes were too high.

He said that he and his wife loved the house, as it had been her home before they bought it from her parents, they loved watching sunsets on the lake and they had fought hard to keep it and he said  "we existed in a state of denial"   , we refused to confront the idea that we were living for the house.  We have painted ourselves into a very tight corner and now we have to fight our way out of it.  He sounded so sad, as if they woke up that morning to find this situation, when in truth it was unfolding on them over the course of 15 years.  Tighter and tighter was the squeeze, they just did not react to it and now confronted with the idea that their children were almost college aged they find that they are in a real quandary.

We talked about the conditions affecting our town and the rapid deterioration of  the number of shopping centers in town.

The patient left and  I remarked that many people seem to be sharing the man's sentiment.  The Dentist then remarked , can you imagine paying $41,000.00 dollars per year in real estate property taxes.  That has got to hurt.

$41000 per year,  a staggering sum.  And so ridiculously high that it can be readily seen why people are fleeing the North East and NJ in particular.

How did we get so out of control ?

The one saving factor of my morning was that my dentist pronounced me in good order , come back in 6 months.    I silently said a prayer of thanks for I would not be paying for dental work, thus being able to pay for property taxes.