A year or so ago, I opened up the official town letter addressed to me and wasn’t happy at what I saw inside. My property tax bill was going up yet again. Angry, I pulled out my trusty solar-powered Canon calculator and made some quick back-of-the-envelope calculations. My non-Nobel-Prize-in-economics findings: my property taxes, dollar-wise, had gone up by about 50 percent since I had bought my house even though inflation had increased by about 33 percent. I knew the spike was partly the result of a new small dormer I had put on my house and rising property values in general. But a 17 percentage point gap?

Anyway, I’m glad to see that the BBJ’s Don Seiffert has done his own non-Nobel-Prize-in-economics calculations regarding state property taxes in general: the average property tax bill in Massachusetts has increased by about 51 percent over the past decade compared to the 35 percent increase in prices due to inflation. Don’s conclusion from the numbers: “a much larger share of most state residents’ incomes are going to taxes today than they did 10 years ago.”

And there you have it. Next time you hear pols, left and right, talking about affordability issues – such as Sen. Elizabeth Warren and President Trump’s chatting  the other day about credit card and housing costs – think about property tax bills. In most towns, they’re a big part of the housing and general affordability problems, too. Right?

Btw: After 14 years, Don Seiffert, the longtime managing editor at the BBJ, is leaving the paper for GBH. I’ve worked with Don over the years. He’s a class act in every regard. GBH has picked up a star business journalist.