"Americans expect to pay property taxes at the same rates as their neighbors. But across most of the United States, flat-rate property taxation is a sham," writes the editorial board. nyti.ms/3wt2hZ9
"Local governments are failing at the basic task of accurately assessing property values, and there is a clear and striking pattern: More expensive properties are undervalued, while less expensive properties are overvalued." nyti.ms/3wt2hZ9
Inequities in tax assessments are both very large and very common.
How bad is it where you live? You can look up your county to see: nyti.ms/3wt2hZ9
The burden falls disproportionately on minorities. Because of the accumulated effects of past racism, minorities tend to live in homes that command lower prices — yet are assessed at inflated values. nyti.ms/3wt2hZ9
The inequities are galling not just because they have come at the expense of those who can least afford it, but because it would be relatively easy for local governments to address the problems.
“Logistical hurdles and missteps could drive slower vaccination campaigns. But states may also be falling behind because of high levels of vaccine hesitancy,” writes @Nat_Lash. nyti.ms/2P9DisU
We can look at the vaccine rollouts in Idaho, Florida and other states to see who has been vaccinated, how quickly and why.
They show why we are headed for pockets of herd immunity (oases) and swaths with low vaccination rates (deserts). nyti.ms/2P9DisU
In Florida, wealthier counties achieving much higher vaccination rates than lower-income counties.
Almost all seniors in wealthy St. Johns have been vaccinated. But in nearby Putnam, one of the state’s poorest counties, only half are. nyti.ms/2P9DisU
Writer @mayjeong on the Asian women killed in the rampage near Atlanta this week: "As working women of color, they existed at the terrible nexus of race, gender and class." nyti.ms/3vHc0uk
"For now, we do not know whether the massage parlor workers who were killed would have considered themselves sex workers, and we may never know." nyti.ms/3vHc0uk
"The stereotype of the Asian woman as simultaneously hypersexualized and submissive is borne of centuries of Western imperialism." nyti.ms/3vHc0uk
This week marks a year since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic in the United States. Today, we're publishing "The Week Our Reality Broke," a series looking back at what we've lost, and what we've gained. nyti.ms/2PVNkOn
It’s understandable to miss pre-pandemic life, but “your nostalgia for the Before Times is in part a barometer of how well they were serving you, how much you’ve been able to ignore the sirens that have been blaring the whole time,” writes @lsjamison. nyti.ms/30EdGq1
Mutual aid kept communities going. “This summer, we saw thousands of our neighbors recognize the urgency of embracing mutualism over individualism,” write four mutual aid organizers and writers in Chicago. nyti.ms/3bziZ0g
Few Americans have left as big a mark on politics, media and culture as Rush Limbaugh did over the past three decades. Here are four voices reflecting on his legacy. nyti.ms/3dwCkRm
Rush Limbaugh's "political legacy feels like the result of an unfortunate encounter between a 1980s young Republican and a tempting monkey’s paw," writes Ross Douthat. nyti.ms/2OZRTH7
Rush Limbaugh "was the right wing’s misogynist id," writes Jill Filipovic. nyti.ms/3sdaVI4
"A president has only limited control over the economy," writes @DLeonhardt. "And yet there has been a stark pattern in the United States for nearly a century." nyti.ms/2YEDlhq
The economy has grown significantly faster under Democratic presidents than Republican ones. It’s true by almost any major indicator: gross domestic product, employment, incomes, productivity, even stock prices. nyti.ms/2YEDlhq
The six presidents who have presided over the fastest job growth have all been Democrats. The four presidents who have presided over the slowest growth have all been Republicans. nyti.ms/2YEDlhq
"Most Americans don’t know this, but police officers in the United States are permitted by law to outright lie about evidence to suspects they interrogate in pursuit of a confession," writes Saul Kassin, who has studied false confessions for 40 years. nyti.ms/3r4JjEq
"Consider what happened to 17-year-old Martin Tankleff. In 1988, he woke up early one morning to find his mother laying in her bloodied bed and his father slumped in his bloodied study chair, gurgling air but unconscious." nyti.ms/3r4JjEq
"After hours of accusations and denials, the lead detective launched into a series of lies about evidence, culminating in a staged phone call to the hospital. He returned with good news and bad." nyti.ms/3r4JjEq