It’s Time to End Property Taxes on the American Home
By The Craig Bushon Show Media Team
Property taxes have long been sold to us as a necessary evil — the money that keeps schools open, roads paved, and emergency services running. But it’s time we look at what this system really does: it means you never truly own your own home. Miss a few payments, and the government can seize your house and sell it out from under you. That’s not ownership. That’s paying rent to the state forever. Why do we accept this in a country that’s supposed to be built on freedom?
Property taxes in America trace back to colonial times. The early settlers borrowed European models that taxed landowners to pay for kings, local churches, and public works. As towns spread across the colonies, taxing land was the simplest way to fund roads, militias, and basic government. After we won independence, the new states kept these taxes because it was an easy way to tax visible wealth. By the late 1800s, property taxes were firmly planted as the main source of local revenue — long before income or sales taxes came along. What started as a practical tool for a small, farming-based society has now become a clumsy, dangerous relic. It doesn’t match the complexities of today’s economy — yet it still holds the frightening power to take your home.
For generations, the American Dream has rested on owning a home. You buy a piece of land, build a house, raise your family, and someday pass it on. It’s your patch of America, secured by your hard work and meant to give stability to your children and grandchildren. But property taxes turn that promise into a cruel joke. Even if you pay off your mortgage completely, you still face the threat of losing your home just because you couldn’t come up with enough cash for the annual tax bill. That’s not true ownership — it’s closer to serfdom, with endless payments to keep living on what’s supposed to be yours.
Who suffers most under this system? The very people we should be protecting: retirees, veterans, and working families who saved and sacrificed to pay off their homes. Many seniors on fixed incomes see tax bills that climb year after year, sometimes forcing them to take out loans or even sell the house they worked a lifetime to own — just to pay the tax man. How is that fair? Imagine a couple who spent 30 years paying down their modest home, finally free of the bank — only to lose it because their local government decided their land was suddenly worth more, and jacked up their taxes. That’s not equity. That’s legalized extortion.
Property taxes also distort local economies. They punish homeowners who make improvements, discourage people from staying long term, and can drive families out of neighborhoods when values spike. Meanwhile, local officials often come to rely on inflating property assessments to pay for ever-growing budgets. Why cut spending or find efficiencies when they can just hike your tax bill? There are better ways to fund local services. We could rely more on consumption taxes, modest local sales taxes, or even local income taxes — systems that spread the load fairly based on what people earn or spend, not just because they happen to live in a certain house.
At the heart of this argument is a simple principle: if you’ve paid off your house, you should own it, free and clear. That’s what the Founders envisioned — your home is your castle, protected by your labor and your rights, not held hostage by a tax collector. As I’ve often said, “There is no real freedom in this country if you can lose your home over a tax bill. True ownership means security, dignity, and the right to pass on your hard-earned legacy without government interference.”
Ending property taxes on owner-occupied homes wouldn’t gut local services. It would force local governments to be more transparent, live within their means, and fund priorities in ways that don’t threaten to take your roof every year. And it would restore a core American value: that we should not pay tribute forever just to stay on land we already bought.
If we really care about freedom, security, and the promise of homeownership, the answer is clear. Property taxes on family homes need to go. Let Americans finally own what they’ve worked a lifetime to build — without fear of losing it to the government.
