“With two cats in the yard, life used to be so hard – and THEN they started taxing the cats!” – apologies to Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.

My native Tennessee’s lack of an income tax has long afforded me bragging rights, but today I heard news that brought me down to (increasingly costly) earth.

According to a report by the Beacon Center of Tennessee, the Volunteer State has far outpaced every other state for the highest percentage increase in property taxes over a six-year period.

Sure, there are still 40 states with a “higher effective property tax rate on owner-occupied housing,” and a handful of communities account for a disproportionate proportion of the increase; but the TREND is disheartening, nonetheless.

(It’s inertia. As Sir Isaac Newton observed, “A trend in motion will continue in motion until someone bops a county........

© The Saratogian