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Property taxes are up about 30 percent in the past few years, according to the Census Bureau. That can severely hurt a new homeowner who may already be “house poor” from buying a home. The important thing to remember is that those property taxes may be wrong. Some local governments have raised property taxes as a way to increase their spending. Also, home values in some areas of the country have increased rapidly. So, appraisers are assessing the value of these homes, and sometimes they can be wrong. Appraisers are just making guesses on the value of a home, and, as you may or may not know, it has a direct effect on your property taxes. So, if you’re trying to get your assessment changed before your local government, you have to do your homework. Find out how much homes are selling for in your area. When presenting your case, assume you are the odd man out and remember to be polite and stay on target during the discussion. Talk only about the facts of your house or others houses around you, especially if they are assessed at a lower value than yours. That plays well in your favor. Home values are also online very often from your local government these days, so it’s much easier to look up.

Ford is about to equip 8,000 employees with traceable cell phones, so the managers will always know where employees are. In fact, the company is trashing all of those employees’ desk phones, so people are always in reach. This is a growing trend with companies these days, and it can be both good and bad. Wireless phones are much less expensive and much more effective. With this move, there also will be no need for call centers, which can also save money. The idea of always being reachable may not appeal to some people, however. Sometimes employees need a break from the office.

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In other cell phone news, did you know that pets are now carrying cell phones? That’s right. Special cells are being made for pets that can be worn around their necks. Owners can call the dog when they are away at work or on vacation and see their pets through a Web site. The phones also have GPS so owners will know where their pets are in case they get lost.

You may have heard that MCI is going out of business. That news was all over the financial press today. And, it seems to be just another step in the recent evolution of telephone communication and long distance calling. AT&T was once the most powerful company in the nation. Today, the company no longer exists except as a name. A few years ago, people started making long distance calls in non-traditional ways such as through Internet calls or on their cell phones. There is a transformation going on in this business, and you need to get with the program. If you still have long distance with Sprint, AT&T or MCI, you are throwing money away. These companies convince us that we need to spend tons on long distance when it actually costs nothing to make those calls. If you have a cell phone with long distance and you make occasional calls, that is really all you need. But if you must have long distance, there are many other options that are just as good. Check them out here.

If you’re thinking about picking a new cell phone company, how would you decide? Well, the FCC has done you a big favor by just releasing new statistics on cell phone company performances. The company causing people the least problems is Verizon. So, despite the fact that Verizon is quite expensive, the company is doing something right. Nextel and Sprint were in the middle, getting average scores. The company people are most unhappy with by far is Cingular/AT&T. Cingular may say it’s a transitional thing because it just merged with AT&T. But the company has not been doing very well. So, how do people get roped into these plans? Typically, people get excited about a certain phone being offered, so they jump into a plan. What you want to do instead is look for a plan that makes sense financially. Clark bases his decision solely on price. If the company offers good customer service, it’s just an unexpected surprise. You need to figure out what works best for you. But do your homework!

These days, the price of gas is once again on our minds. Filling up is a huge burden these days for a lot of us. Several cartoons are even joking about giving away “free gas” in NCAA office polls because it’s so pricey. Clark predicts that gas prices will rise through about June 1 and then they start to decline through Labor Day. Last year was unusual. Prices kept rising through the summer. Another factor affecting gas prices is the economic growth in Communist China. The demand there is so high, so there is no safety cushion for consumers. You can always help each other out by posting prices you see on Web sites. A good one is gaspricewatch.com. Also, start looking for gas when the tank hits a half a tank. That way you can find good prices and fill up at about a quarter of a tank. Try supermarkets and warehouse clubs too, which usually have decent gas prices.

When was the last time you checked your credit card statement line item by line item? Most people do not and it’s simply not smart in today’s identity theft ridden society. Channel 14 in Evansville, Indiana proved that even further in a recent story about credit card scams. The station found that consumers' credit cards were being charged $29.99 for no reason. Most often the charge showed up as “Pluto Data, ” which neither Visa nor MasterCard knew the meaning of. So, if you see a charge you don’t recognize, challenge it. There is obviously a failure to provide proper transactions and information to customers, so it’s up to you to protect yourself.