By Brian Massie, A Watchman on the Wall
Thanks to another Lake County patriot for sending us this article. It is not just Ohio that is dealing with the property tax issue. This US Supreme Court ruling impacts all homeowners.
Is private property important? Is our 250 year experiment over?
Supreme Court Sides With Michigan County in Tax Foreclosure Dispute
By Matthew Vadum 6/23/26
A Michigan family whose home was foreclosed by the county over unpaid taxes argued that they should have been paid the fair market value of their home.
The U.S. Supreme Court on June 23 ruled unanimously that a Michigan county does not have to compensate a homeowner whose home was sold for unpaid taxes based on the property’s hypothetical fair market value.
The case came three years after the Supreme Court ruled unanimously in Tyler v. Hennepin County, Minnesota, that a county wronged a grandmother when it forced the sale of her condominium over an unpaid tax debt and kept sale proceeds that far exceeded the tax she owed. Critics call this practice “home equity theft.”
In the case at hand, Pung v. Isabella County, Michigan, the Supreme Court looked at whether the U.S. Constitution requires local governments to compensate homeowners based on the fair market value of a property seized for tax arrears, or merely refund the surplus left over from a government auction.
Justice Samuel Alito wrote the court’s majority opinion in the case.
“The proper baseline under the Takings Clause [of the Fifth Amendment] is the price obtained in a tax sale, at least when the sale is fairly conducted in light of our country’s history of tax sales,” Alito wrote.
“Following a tax sale, the Eighth Amendment Excessive Fines Clause does not require the government to return more than the surplus proceeds. Neither the Fifth nor the Eighth Amendment requires the government to compensate former owners based on the hypothetical fair market value of the property.”
Editorial opinion by Brian Massie, A Watchman on the Wall
Let me get this straight. The government can charge you property taxes based on what they say it is worth (hypothetical fair market value), but if you do not pay the tax they say you owe; they can sell your house at a government auction and you get the difference between the sale price (not the hypothetical fair market value used for assessing the property taxes) and the immoral property taxes you owe.
Categories: Property Tax Petition, Uncategorized