I have gotten these before, but not produced this way. The ones I got looked like they were written by an underpaid employee.
They have had signature machines for years though. The Kennedy's used them a lot.
The only thing I would experiment with this project is adding significant error, and randomness to the writing. It would look more realistic?
On a personal note, when I get these (Anderson Painting likes this approach.); I throw away the ad away immediately, or if printed on good stock paper--I save to pick up dust.
All a town or county is looking for is a somewhat equitable way to split up the bill for the total tax income it wants to collect each year. All that matters is that every property's relative value is reasonably fairly assessed, and the tax rate is then set based on the amount of funds the local government budgets, with the portion each household pays being weighted based on assessed value.
All that happens if an individual homeowner argues down their appraisal is that everybody else's taxes go up by a bit.
If everybody successfully argued their house was 10% overvalued, all the assessments would go down, the tax rate would go up, and they'd all be right back where they started for tax bills.
In my locale, the assessment is pegged to the sale price, so if you buy a house for $X, the assessed value becomes $X. The city assessor also inspects the house shortly after the sale. In an area with a lot of turnover, the assessments tend to be fairly accurate. A major renovation (requiring a permit) will result in a re-assessment.
In subsequent years, they're supposed to apply a formula, but of course "drift" can occur. And then there's an appeal process.
> A major renovation (requiring a permit) will result in a re-assessment.
Doesn't this just incentivize people to not pull permits on major work? In California contractors often try to talk you out of getting a permit because it's more of a hassle for them, so clearly the contractors aren't liable for doing unpermitted work...
It does, but it's usually the contractor who pulls the permit for you. I suspect enforcement is enough of a deterrent, but who knows. As I understand it, the penalty is that you get to rip out whatever was built without a permit.
For DIY'ers, there's actually a nice program... once you pull a permit, you get to talk with the code inspectors during their office hours, and they will walk you through everything you need to do in order to meet code. A friend of mine built an entire addition this way.
There's no way to hack-proof any taxation mechanism.
Same in Canada.. always seemed fair enough to me and I assumed it was standard but now I'm curious how many other ways they are and how they shake out.
There is little thought given to how much the individual house is worth, rather it relies on comp sales in the area. For example, a fully renovated house might go for $500k, but another in the neighborhood with the same number of bedrooms and bathrooms in a less desirable location (say the entrance to the neighborhood) might only be able to sell for $400k.
It is also very common for the adjustments upward to be far quicker than adjustments downward.
Then there are definitely examples out there of the city appraised value being driven by desired tax revenue and becoming detached from the reality of sale prices.
In California, your value is nominally bound to the actual value (i.e. it can be reassessed at any time). However, given that prices go up faster than the limits on raising assessed value in Proposition 13, in reality the tax is effectively "Sales price plus MIN(Inflation, 2%) per year"
My current house was being taxed at a value of 1/8 of what I paid for it.
I still don't understand why you needed this autograph pencil?