venmic wrote:
The total market value of real estate in Altonville has steadily declined over the past four years. This decline has meant that the overall figure on which the city’s property tax is based—the assessed value of that real estate—has also declined. Moreover, the percentage of assessed value that was paid as property taxes to the city did not change during this period. The information above most strongly supports which of the following?
A. Money collected from property taxes provided most of Altonville’s revenue during the past four years.
B. The percentage of Altonville’s overall revenue that was collected from property taxes did not change over the past four years.
C. Altonville officials had proposed raising property tax rates during the past four years but never did so because of strong opposition from property owners.
D. The total amount of revenue that Altonville has collected from property taxes has declined over the past four years.
E. During the past four years, Altonville officials also did not increase tax rates on other sources of revenue such as retail sales or business profits.
Dear
VenmicI don't know that there's a "key" to solving percent problems. Of course ....
percent = (Part)/(Whole)* 100
... so in any CR question that discusses them, the direction of change of the percent (increase or decrease) does not necessarily have to be the same as the direction of change of the "Part", so long as the "Whole" also changes. It just a matter of keeping straight, for any particular assertion --- are they talking about the "percent", the "Part", or the "Whole"? --- because information given could be about any of those three.
Let's look at this particular argument.
The total market value of real estate in Altonville has steadily declined over the past four years. That's the "whole" from which real estate tax is assessed.
percent = (Part)/(Whole)* 100
(percent of property tax) = (total $ amount of property taxes)/(total market value of real estate)*100
This decline has meant that the overall figure on which the city’s property tax is based—the assessed value of that real estate—has also declined.A bit redundant --- this sentence just points out that this same "whole" --- the "total market value of real estate" ---- is, of course, the basis of real estate tax. Property tax is based on property!
Moreover, the percentage of assessed value that was paid as property taxes to the city did not change during this period. OK, now we know --- "percent" stayed the same. So, sentence #1 told us "Whole" declined", and here we also know that "percent" stays the same --- this ineluctably means: "Part" must have also decreased. That's the only way the "Whole" could decrease while the "percent" stays the same. That "Part" would be the actual monetary amount of the property tax --- that must decrease. This is exactly what the correct answer D says.
Does this make sense?
Mike
_________________
Mike McGarry
Magoosh Test Prep
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93% (02:28) correct
