Property tax bills remain out of whack
A recent editorial in the Houston Chronicle, titled “Out of Whack” declared that conservative leaders like Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Patrick and myself should stop “playing to a narrow base of angry voters” and work with local government officials on the “serious issues” that face our area. While I cannot speak for anyone else, I have advocated for a third west side reservoir to be built in response to Hurricane Harvey along with other colleagues. The Chronicle editorial Board is missing what is really “out of whack” is the tremendous increase in local property tax bills that have taxpayers angry.
For example, according to the certified annual financial report for Harris County, from 2013 to 2016, the average home has seen a 36.4 percent increase on the county portion of their property tax bill in just three years! In other words, Harris County, in just their general fund alone, collected over $400 million more every single year! When you include additional taxing entities, the average tax bill in Harris County has risen from $3,582 in 2013 to $4,675 in 2016 — more than a 30 percent increase! While county tax bills grew an average of 36.4 percent, city of Houston tax bills, due to a voter imposed tax rate cap similar to Senate Bill 1, only grew 21.5 percent over the same period of time. I believe that property tax reform is one of the most serious issues facing all Texans and I will continue to advocate for conservative solutions to Texas challenges to bring down this double digit rate of growth year after year on property tax bills.
Legislation I introduced in both the regular and special session, Senate Bill 1, was a simple concept: As appraised values go up tax rates should come down. A majority of Democrat Commissioners on the Travis County Court have put this concept into action and cut their county’s property tax rate by eleven pennies, or 22 percent, resulting in the average home’s county portion of their property tax bill staying flat, despite large appraisal increases. Unfortunately after passing property tax reform legislation in the Senate multiple times, the Texas House ultimately killed the bill in the special session by refusing to negotiate, refusing to appoint a
Legislation I introduced in both the regular and special session, Senate Bill 1, was a simple concept: As appraised values go up tax rates should come down.
conference committee, and adjourning Sine Die a day early, effectively killing the chance for measurable property tax relief in 2017.
While the Chronicle calls Judge Ed Emmett’s vision for more government spending “bold,” they ignore the taxpayers that will be saddled with the bill. While it may be “bold” to collect hundreds of millions more dollars from taxpayers every single year and continue to call for more revenue, it is certainly not “bold” to call for Medicaid expansion to “provide property tax relief ’’ as Harris County leaders have done, and then register in opposition to legislation that would have required savings be passed through via a property tax rate cut. It is not “bold” to watch as tens of thousands of homeowners try to rebuild after Hurricane Harvey and yet refuse to offer them disaster reappraisal. Bold leadership by Harris County, the city of Houston, and Houston ISD would be to trigger disaster reappraisal like other taxing entities, such as Montgomery County, Fort Bend County, Spring Branch ISD, and Katy ISD, etc, have already done.
It is time to recognize the obvious and do something about it! What is actually “out of whack” is Texans property tax bills.