By David Erinakes
AUSTIN, Texas (Texas Insider Report) — Well, yet another week's gone by, and still, it's clear for all to see. The optics and perception of what the Texas State House and State Senate are doing on "Property Tax Reform" makes it seem to the Average Texan that there are no adults in the room.
According to multiple sources in the House & Senate, the vast majority of our elected officials are having no say in this process and are growing extremely frustrated.
That means the three top leaders need a plan they can all get behind to address the growing frustrations of Texans... with both Property Taxes and insane Appraisal Issues. We all know the "Big Three" are for that.
Texans can see what Appraisal Districts are doing; they are jacking up appraisals in order to ‘bank’ appraised values for the next decade so they can get more funding even if confronted with a legislature willing to stop them. That means any benefit from a Homestead Appraisal Exemption could potentially be eaten up within the next couple of years - so addressing the appraisals issue may be addresses along with this.
Additionally, as one Representative put it,
"My district is willing to trust us on compression for now, but they want appraisals dealt with, because Texans can read and count."
Harsh but accurate accessment of how perception feeds into the calculation. I will suggest a simple fix and hope someone takes note:
- Agree that Compression is the best path for long terms property tax reduction. Make it the base of the bill.
- Acknowledgment that Texans want Apprasial Exemptions and they want it now. Give them what they want.
- Require every Property Apprasial in Texas be recalculated at only an increase of Inflation plus Population growth. Don’t take any excuses from government workers who say this is to hard. Just do what what Texans want and desire.
- Pass the most Popular bill in many years in Texas that shows not just that you care but that you listened…..
- Agree to a Joint House and Senate committee with a couple of positions for Texans to provide counsel with a goal of developing next steps in eliminating Property Tax with the intent of developing legislation.
