Texas has high property taxes. Cities, counties schools all get to us. They can raise property taxes by 8% each year if they wish. Do the math. It drives up costs. Once again, repub legis say they want a 2.5% cap. Anything greater would require voter approval.

The republicans have the numbers to pass prop tax reform without the democrats.

Pressure against a cap comes from local govts, schools and business. Business fears their taxes may go up to make up the loss. Local govts fear tax caps.

Our elected republican cowards yeilded to pressure last session and failed to pass a cap.

Of course the Dims oppose. Paper today says a key repub senator from Amarillo opposes because it takes away too much local control.

Figured this was coming. The repub cowards ran on property tax caps but will betray us once again.
They did this last session. Knowing they might lose financial support from business and local political parties, the repub leaders tried to divert attention by creating a “red herring” crisis called “The Bathroom Bill”. Suddenly it was made to seem like an army of cross dressing predatory sex criminals had been unleashed upon the state’s women and children and were lurking in every womans restroom awaiting victims to prey upon. It became the focus of every pols conversation.

This despite there being little or no evidence that such assaults had ever taken place. This despite the fact that sexual assault is already illegal in Texas.

Mission accomplished. The tax cap bill was relagated to the backroom as outraged politicians, huckster preachers and assorted other assholes vied to generate maximum noise and attention for and against the bathroom bill. The press played it up.


Tax reform faded into the background. The bathroom bill eventually died, but the cowards in office had diverted attention away from their betrayal of the taxpayer.

These bastards again campaigned on prop tax reform but knew when it came to the final vote, they would yeild to the cap opponents and either reject or heavily compromise. As to senator Seliger from Amarillo and his contention that it removes local control? The cap allows raising the taxes higher than 2.5% if the voters approve.

Our Lt. Gov started his pol career on tax caps. Then, last session he betrayed his voters with the red herring. Our republican state legislators are reaching for democratic party scumbaggery levels. What do they think they are, federal politicians?

I expect a heavily compromised bill or nothing at all. Our republican pols will blame the dims or create another crisis to drive the issue into the background, thereby pushing it to the end of the session leaving no time to address the original promises.

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Our elected republican cowards yielded to pressure...

It's just what they do.
The sun rises. Water is wet. Republicans cave.

I truly despise these scumbags. It's the same shit every single year.

Texas Republican politicians are a disgrace.

The swamp.

Those assholes spend too much time in Austin. It softens their resolve.

Every single primary residence in the country should have a property tax cap and Homestead exemptions. Investment properties can be treated differently but should still be reasonable. Here in Florida we have Save Our Homes property tax caps for primary residences where it can not go up by more than 3% per year and we get a $50K Homestead exemption on the first $50K of property value. We also do not have state income tax and yet we seem to be able to maintain balanced budgets and surpluses. It's called controlled, reasonable spending.

I know, I know our elections handling need some work but at least our taxes are under control and the services we receive for them are reasonable. Then again, Governor DeSantis did finally get rid of Brenda Snipes so even our elections will likely be better this coming election cycle.

As to Republicans caving...it does get frustrating. We are always the side expected to "compromise" but somehow it always seems to end up feeling like 80/20 or 70/30 against Republicans for the sake of finding "middle ground". I think some Republicans, particularly in other states, need to take a refresher course in statistics and maybe get a copy of "The Art of the Deal"?

The Republican Lieutenant Governor need to go back to being a third rate sportscaster on KHOU in Houston! He sucked at that too.

We have to make sure all the under-performing schools get their fair share of the pie and the superintendents can make 300k each year. Got to pay those bilingual teachers to teach the illegals. Then again, we could live in Illinois.

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Originally posted by Dtech: Here in Florida we have Save Our Homes property tax caps for primary residences where it can not go up by more than 3% per year and we get a $50K Homestead exemption on the first $50K of property value.

That can't be right unless I'm missing something. The highest property tax in the nation is less than 3% so raising it 3% per year is insane unless that's 3% of what it currently is.

For example in IL it's a little over 2% so a $500k house pays $10,000 a year in property tax. Pritzker of course wants to raise it to 3% which would make the taxes jump $5000 in one year.

Why not go after the local politicritters who raise the property taxes? And if you can't get that done at the local level, why would it be any different at the state level.

What's really egregious about property taxes is that I pay 1.32% of my home's value to the hospital district. To put that in perspective, the school tax is 1.28%.

Then, when I use the hospital (e.g. my '16 knee surgery) I get to pay 20% of a monster bill (my insurance covers other). I'm in a solidly republican area too, but people like me are subsidizing the heck out of the 3 competing hospital systems (Methodist, St Lukes, and Memorial Hermann) coming to the burbs.

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Originally posted by 1s1k:

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Originally posted by Dtech: Here in Florida we have Save Our Homes property tax caps for primary residences where it can not go up by more than 3% per year and we get a $50K Homestead exemption on the first $50K of property value.

That can't be right unless I'm missing something. The highest property tax in the nation is less than 3% so raising it 3% per year is insane unless that's 3% of what it currently is.

For example in IL it's a little over 2% so a $500k house pays $10,000 a year in property tax. Pritzker of course wants to raise it to 3% which would make the taxes jump $5000 in one year.

Where did you get this info? My property taxes are more than 3.0% here in Texas.

As for the increase caps, I believe folks in this thread are referencing a desire to cap annual appraised value increases.

One of my local city council members is freaking out about these caps.
He posted this link this week.

Analysis: Here’s your property tax cut, maybe. Heads up — it’s expensive.

I should have clarified. This involves property appraisal increases. This is a way to raise taxes without being held accountable for a voted tax increase. If your prp apprasael value goes up, the amount you pay goes up. The political bastards can say :” But I didn’t vote to raise your taxes.” This way they get a revenue bump each year. As houses increase in value, taxes goe up much higher than the inflation rate. People are having to sell their homes because of tax increases brought about because of eveluations. If your house increases in value 7 0r more percent a year, after 10 years you’re screwed. Does your salery increase 7% or more each year automatically? My house market value increased by over 50% in 6 years. Govt Appraisers are encouraged to appraise high, even over market value.

Last time I checked with my tax accountant (aka, wife) we are paying some $5K per year in various property taxes here.

I let her handle it because I got to the point that I didn't want the migraines after seeing how much it is costing us to live here.

And the county recently built a multi-million dollar "school" with a shit ton of stuff (like Olympic swimming pools! And their excuse was that it was to be open to the public when not in use by the school. Of course, they charge for the public to use it.

Oh, not to mention the taxes we pay on our vehicles as well.

We have lived in a housing development just south of Manassas for more than 30 years. Supposed to be some upscale area. Don't even have street lights for that more than $5K per year in taxes.

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Originally posted by maxdog:
I should have clarified. This involves property appraisal increases. This is a way to raise taxes without being held accountable for a voted tax increase. If your prp apprasael value goes up, the amount you pay goes up. The political bastards can say :” But I didn’t vote to raise your taxes.” This way they get a revenue bump each year. As houses increase in value, taxes goe up much higher than the inflation rate. People are having to sell their homes because of tax increases brought about because of eveluations. If your house increases in value 7 0r more percent a year, after 10 years you’re screwed. Does your salery increase 7% or more each year automatically? My house market value increased by over 50% in 6 years. Govt Appraisers are encouraged to appraise high, even over market value.

Don't feel like you are alone! You are not. They pull the same shit here. "We did not raise your taxes!!! We only raised the appraised value! Typical politicrap BS. In my world, if I have to pay more in property taxes, you raised the fucking taxes, and I don't give a crap about how you manipulated the system to do it.

It's hopefully a start to reign in some of the egregious tax hikes a lot of people have been seeing. One state senator ran the numbers and some people (most notably in the Dallas area, but others as well) saw their taxes increase by 36% in 3 years. Anything to slow that rate of increase is unsustainable in the long term.

Much of the Repub caving on this is from polly-tic-ians from the rural areas. In many of those areas the local school district is the biggest employer in the county. And a lot of those districts became addicted to the extra money they received due to appraisal creep. Plus, they have ZERO incentive to control costs. From generous salaries for an army of 'administrators' to pensions to new facilities that are lavish villas compared to where I went to school.

IMO, capping the rate of tax growth is only one side of it. They also need another bill to control the spending side. Have something akin to the Public Utilities Commission. Basically give the school districts a level of spending per student. Anything above that cannot be applied to the tax base. They'll have to find other ways to raise the money. So they can't build indoor football practice facilities that are more lavish than what NFL teams have. Or they can't have 2 administrators per teacher. Unless they pay for it via some means other than reaching into the pockets of taxpayers.

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Originally posted by TXJIM:

Where did you get this info? My property taxes are more than 3.0% here in Texas.

As for the increase caps, I believe folks in this thread are referencing a desire to cap annual appraised value increases.

Average Property Taxes in Texas:
The average effective property tax rate in the Lone Star state is 1.86% of a home’s value.

I looked at 5 different sources that all showed right at 2% or less as an average. Illinois is listed as either the worst or definitely top 3 depending on how you figure it and they are just a bit over 2%.

I would agree with you that people are talking about appraisals instead of actual tax rate which is just another sneaky way to get more of their hand in your pocket.

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In many of those areas the local school district is the biggest employer in the county. And a lot of those districts became addicted to the extra money they received due to appraisal creep. Plus, they have ZERO incentive to control costs. From generous salaries for an army of 'administrators' to pensions to new facilities that are lavish villas compared to where I went to school.

Yep.

'Public' schools are socialist schools. Many people don't want to hear that. They wonder why our children are so open to the idea of socialism. It's inevitable as even freedom loving parents allow their children to be indoctrinated in a socialist setting.

My solution: Disband the school districts. Eliminate the school taxes. Sell the buildings to private operators, creating thousands and thousands of private schools which will have to compete to attract students.

'Public' education only goes back to around 1900. Prior to that, we had private education. The buildings weren't fancy, often one-room schoolhouses, but they taught kids the basics.

The expense of 'public' education is enormous. People with young kids tend to think of it as 'free'... but if they are homeowners they finance that education for 50 years or more.
When you look at it that way, as 50 year financing, you quickly realize that you could send your kid to the best private schools for less money than you are spending on a public school.

Full disclosure:
My parents sent me to private, Catholic schools: grade school, high school, and University. I did the same for my children. I was also elected twice to serve on the local public school district board of education. I've seen education up close in both private and public settings.

I've said it for many years, public education is it's own mafia.

It isn't really accountable to anyone, and it continues to lie and grow.