By Anita Weier
Northside News
Kathleen Quinlan recently sold her spacious townhouse on a Northside golf course to move into a smaller, less expensive condominium nearby. Quinlan said the decision was financial.
“I am no longer living in the house I prefer because of cost. It got to be too expensive. I’m 82 and still work part-time,” said Quinlan, a retired attorney who now works at Land’s End. “Couldn’t we reduce taxes to allow people to stay in their homes? But that would not be fair to younger people just starting out.”
She noted that more people are facing retirement without pensions or sufficient 401Ks, and that, in the future, people may not be able to count on Social Security. “Without Social Security, we may have a country of people starving,” she added.
While not presenting such a dystopian point of view, Diane Walder is also concerned by constantly rising costs, such as property taxes. “I came back to Madison because my siblings started to have kids, but I wish I hadn’t moved back. I have been in this house 23 years, and I don’t recall taxes being that bad as in the past few years,” said Walder, who is retired and in her 70s and lives on Nancy Lane on the Northside.
“I was stunned that in a referendum people voted for a rise in taxes. I paid off the mortgage, but I feel like I will be paying rent for the rest of my life. Taxes go up every year. I don’t want to move, but I feel as if I’m being forced out.”
She knows others who are unhappy about the tax situation. Walder’s property taxes total $5,089 currently, up from $4,792 the previous year. Walder realizes the City of Madison has to fund services, but she questions expenditures such as Bus Rapid Transit. “It seems the buses are always empty,” she said.
Meanwhile, Quinlan is happy in her new home, but still regrets having to move from her former home, where she lived for 13 years and got to know many neighbors. However, she knows the rise in property value at that townhouse allowed her to buy her new home with money to spare.
“This will be my last house,” she said. “Then I will go into an assisted living home or stay with the kids.” She also hopes to be able to leave money to her daughter and son-in-law, which seems increasingly unrealistic.
