Crowe wrote:
Not true, you are paying the property tax of the park owner via your rent, same as if you lived in an apartment.
Agreed, but most likely it's nowhere near what they'd get if you had a stick-and-brick. Each school system determines how much per year it costs to educate a child and in some school districts the amount is quite a bit. In MA the average per district was over $16K per student and that's not the highest in the country. My comments are not to discourage people from full-timing with kids-I'm a firm believer most children learn more from the outside world than the classroom. I have no idea how campgrounds are taxed or the tax rate would be but even if it were only 1 child it's a fair chunk of tax revenue.
In Montana we are taxed on the business value of the property. Like many states, Montana has different taxing assessments and rates for different types of businesses and properties. In Montana RV parks fall under the same category as other lodging facilities. If RV parks become long term stay locations with many children enrolling in schools and the residents using other governmental services I would expect that taxing status would change. Currently, RV park guests use very little in those governmental services. Park guests don't have children in school, they are not collecting from state unemployment funds or state welfare programs and are seldom a problem that require law enforcement intervention. In my opinion it is in the best interests of most RV'ers for RV parks to continue to be used for recreational RVing and not long term housing, taxation being yet another reason why.
