Harris County Commissioners Court proposes property tax increase

From Charles Blain over at Urban Reform:

For the first time in two decades, Harris County Commissioners Court is proposing to raise the property tax rate for county residents. The newly proposed rate is 0.65260 per $100 of value, up from last year’s 0.62998.

(click here to read Blain’s full report on urbanreform.org)

I haven’t been following their budget discussions, so I can’t comment on whether or not they need the funding. But I can comment on the so-called “effective tax rate” sham and tell you how the two Republican members of the court, Steve Radack and Jack Cagle, can stop it if they wish.

First though, a couple of tweets from the Taxman, Paul Bettencourt:

Today’s action by HC Comm Court is the first proposed overall property tax rate increase in over 20 years…on top of a booming appraisal roll.  The new proposed rate is $0.65260 per $100 of value. This is a “maximum smash” on taxpayers!

and

HC Comm Court proposes breaking the back of taxpayers! Despite $448B record tax roll, proposes double digit tax increase (11.7%) for the avg home, 10% more overall revenue, before #SB2 comes into effect This is $131 to be taken from avg taxpayers.

That seems like a pretty big increase to me. Not sure the population increase plus inflation has been that high.

But about that “effective tax rate”. They call it “truth in taxation” but it is anything but. It is a sham. It is so complicated that no one really understands it and it creates a false impression that you are raising taxes higher than you are if you simply try to match the same revenue as last year.

I know this because I am the mayor of a small city dealing with it. If our council adopts the “effective tax rate” we will actually be raising a substantial amount of money LESS than we did last year. If they adopt a rate that raises EXACTLY the same amount of money as we raised last year, our citizens will claim that they are RAISING taxes. Which is simply not true but our state government is so screwed up that it requires us to publish this nonsense. So take the ETR with a grain of salt. If you don’t think I’m right, click here to view the calculations for Harris County.

And there is a simple way for Commissioners Radack and Cagle to stop it. Two commissioners in Lubbock County just provided the blueprint.

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