By Patrick McGuinness
Texas Insider Report: AUSTIN Texas Local governments in Texas are considering raising property tax rates to get the revenue to not only maintain spending but in some cases increase it in their 2011 budgets.
The city of Austin and the other Travis County governing bodies will attempt to reassure taxpayers that the tax burden will remain low but when you add up the tax increases in each of the taxing entities we are beholden to the price gets rather steep.
During the recent good years of rising home values many Travis county homeowners were hit with higher property tax bills due to rising appraisal values. Local taxing entities enjoyed the boom raising spending based on rising property tax values and the resulting increase in revenue.
With our economy struggling and home values deflating we are seeing this process in reverse. Travis County announced earlier this month that appraisals had gone down county-wide; taxing entities across the state relying on property taxes are seeing revenues fall short of expectations.
Travis County tax rates for example could rise from around 42 to 46 cents a 10 percent rate increase. Due to yearly appraisal increases of as much as 10 a homeowners actual tax bill could increase well above the effective tax rate increase of around 5 percent in some cases as high as 20 percent.
Current elected officials in Travis County seem less interested in protecting taxpayers than they are in increasing spending. Their approach hits homeowners
and property taxpayers coming and going.
According to a Tax Foundation report released in 2007 Texas has the highest property tax burden of any state in the country with the average family paying 1.84 of their home value in property taxes each year.
It is time that the Texas legislature work to better protect taxpayers from the ever-increasing tax burdens imposed by local governments.
With the current 10 percent annual appraisal cap homeowners can have their property taxes double every 8 years based solely on appraisal increases. Without limits on tax rate increases homeowners might see their property taxes double in even less time. This can hit homeowners hard especially long-term homeowners on limited incomes such as retirees. I am in favor of lowering the appraisal cap from 10 percent to 5 percent and extending appraisal caps to all properties.
Taxpayers need to have some assurance that their governments will not seek to unfairly raise tax rates without asking for approval from voters first.
With the current system the only recourse taxpayers have is what is known as a rollback election which requires taxpayers to petition for a lower property tax rate when the proposed rate increases by over 8 percent from the previous year. We should lower the rollback tax rate from 8 percent to 5 percent.
We further need to require local governments to automatically seek voter approval for a tax rate that would increase taxes by over 5 percent from the previous year
rather than putting the burden on citizens to petition for rollback elections.
Property tax relief should never be tied to mandates as some in the legislature have attempted to do. Austins legislative representatives have consistently voted in favor of special requirements for tax relief using the property tax burden as a political prop to score points with special interests instead of helping taxpayers. More and more Texas taxpayers are saddled with debt spending increases and are denied government transparency and accountability.
Property tax reform is a multifaceted solution to those problems and must be taken seriously by legislators.
I signed the
Americans for Prosperity Defending the American Dream Pledge last month stating my commitment to support legislative caps on property tax rates protecting taxpayers with appraisal caps and improving accountability with property tax ratification elections.
Lower property taxes and strong taxpayer protections will keep Texas economy strong.
Taxpayers and homeowners should consider this when they vote in November.
Patrick McGuinness is the Republican nominee for State Representative in House District 50. He has a doctorate in Computer Science and has worked in Austin for almost 20 years as an engineer in the semiconductor industry. Patrick and his wife Celeste are raising their four children in northwest Austin.
rather than putting the burden on citizens to petition for rollback elections.
Property tax relief should never be tied to mandates as some in the legislature have attempted to do. Austins legislative representatives have consistently voted in favor of special requirements for tax relief using the property tax burden as a political prop to score points with special interests instead of helping taxpayers. More and more Texas taxpayers are saddled with debt spending increases and are denied government transparency and accountability.
Property tax reform is a multifaceted solution to those problems and must be taken seriously by legislators.
I signed the Americans for Prosperity Defending the American Dream Pledge last month stating my commitment to support legislative caps on property tax rates protecting taxpayers with appraisal caps and improving accountability with property tax ratification elections.
Lower property taxes and strong taxpayer protections will keep Texas economy strong.
Taxpayers and homeowners should consider this when they vote in November.
Patrick McGuinness is the Republican nominee for State Representative in House District 50. He has a doctorate in Computer Science and has worked in Austin for almost 20 years as an engineer in the semiconductor industry. Patrick and his wife Celeste are raising their four children in northwest Austin.
