Sometimes when two adults care for each other very deeply….. well, you know, there is mutual consent.  Mutual consent can apply to many dating situations (did you think I was going somewhere else with this blog?) such as where to go to dinner, what day to go, whose car to drive, who pays the bill…. Need I go on?  Mutual consent works well in dating.  Mutual consent also works well in the area of property taxes (not generally as fun as dating).

When mutual consent occurs in the administration of property taxes things always seem to go better.  Just like governments before them, the early American colonies tried their hand at property tax administration.  Property taxes in the early American colonies started with the pilgrims (yes the pilgrims who landed at Plymouth Rock).  Unlike with previous, more oppressive governments, the colonies created a tax system based on mutual consent.

The colonies agreed to a list of laws, including ones that discussed how to assess and collect property taxes.  Although the pilgrims divided the land equally, those with land that was deemed more productive paid a higher percentage of the taxes.  Everyone had a voice in the process…… So if you didn’t like your taxes there really was no one to blame but yourself.

I wonder when property taxes stopped being about mutual consent…… It could have been around the time I persuaded my first girlfriend to drive us to dinner… to my favorite dining establishment… using her credit card