question
But the home place and the woodlots which had once surrounded it had been taken for unpaid taxes long since (and purchased back in ’08 by one of several Jim Rennie dummy corporations … at bargain-basement rates).

Question: Does “rates” in this case mean “a tax levied on property by a local authority ?

Question

question
But the home place and the woodlots which had once surrounded it had been taken for unpaid taxes long since (and purchased back in ’08 by one of several Jim Rennie dummy corporations … at bargain-basement rates).

Question: Does “rates” in this case mean “a tax levied on property by a local authority ?

Answer

Rates:  In this case, that would reference the price of the property in '08.  This instance does not refer to taxes.