Probably seriously considering moving to Waller or Ft Bend County if that happens. No clue where I would live, but without kids or significant other to justify the insane property tax rates not worth living in Harris County long term.

Bryan and College Station are both proposing similar.

https://www.kbtx.com/content/news/Bryan-City-Council-looking-at-tax-rate-with-disaster-provisions-571140831.html

aTm2004 said:

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c-jags said:

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Artorias said:

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I have come to loathe the entire concept of property taxes, especially how they are handled here in Texas.

One of the big reasons we are moving to Tennessee.

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i kinda like the concept of property taxes over state income.

i can live in a decent area that doesn't have insane taxes in a $100k house. i have the option to move to a nicer house or area with a higher property tax if i so desire. i don't really get a say so with a state income tax.


i'd rather just a flat sales tax instead of any income or property tax, but that sort of thought isn't allowed.

ETA: property taxes obviously aren't perfect. in Bell County we had numerous people have their property values "magically" double this last year. contesting it wasn't too hard though.

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The thing about property taxes is the county can raise the value of your house each year if they need more money, so your $100k house may be worth $200k in 10 years after they max out the increase each year. You have zero say in that. Yeah, you can protest it, but how many wins do you think you'll get in a row? With income tax, you have more of a say in your annual income, and if you're in a job with a relatively low income ceiling (teacher, LEO, etc), an income tax is probably preferable. This is why I was against whatever prop was on the ballot recently about adding a constitutional amendment for the state to never have an income tax.

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Counties don't raise valuations. The appraisal district does. Appraisal Districts answer to the State. Taxing entities set rates. Counties, Schools, MUD's, etc. Largest percentage goes to the schools. School board sets the rate. County Commissioners set the county rate. Find out who your county precinct commissioner is. Follow on social media. Pressure them to set rates for "zero budget" increases. This has happened in Ft Bend. Commissioners court voted to set a rate that did not include any budget increases. And believe it or not, Katy ISD has discussed lowering rates.

With all the money Harris Co has received from disaster declarations and CARES act, they should be able to pass it on to the taxpayer by lowering rates. It more than offsets loss of sales tax revenue. Schools too. CARES act provided $13B for K-12. Latest Senate version of HEROES act provides $70B.

Chris Salcedo was on about this the other day about how he didn't know they snuck in an exemption allowing counties/cities to go above the property tax increase threshold that otherwise requires approval by the voters, during the pandemic.

A lot of counties are doing it, apparently including Plano. Kind of maddening, but I haven't checked it out much.

https://www.thecentersquare.com/texas/texas-lawmakers-cities-that-exploit-covid-19-to-raise-property-taxes-beyond-cap-could-be/article_9bb1d5cc-ae6b-11ea-b8e3-4b83afe646e0.html

If Abbott has a shred of intelligence (which of late it seems he doesn't) he'll put a stop to this.

What do construction companies do doing a downturn in business? Keep operating as usual or make "adjustments "?

They need that money now because commercial real estate values going to drop next year.

zooguy96 said:

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Artorias said:

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I have come to loathe the entire concept of property taxes, especially how they are handled here in Texas.

One of the big reasons we are moving to Tennessee.

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We had a starter home in Leander with .25 acres of land in a neighborhood and paid $5k in taxes.

Same size house (here in TN) with a $100,000 higher value, much nicer finished, and 1.5 acres of land - and we pay $1,100 a year in taxes.

We couldn't move here fast enough. Plus, no extended 100+ days and some snow.

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What part of TN did you guys end up in? We are looking around East Tennessee primarily.

Let me get this straight:

Just a year ago, we were sending state representatives to enact taxing reform/limits to the capitol in order to try and reign in the insane tax increases simply due to property value increases.

now every city is using the horrible loophole ironed out in the compromise to drastically increase their tax percentages?

This is exactly why everyone hates government.

Property taxes are immoral and they violate the basic premise of property rights.

You never really own your property in Texas. You are merely renting it from the government.

Property taxes are also the most regressive of all the major tax systems. The poorer you are, the more likely you are to rent. The landlord raises rates as his taxes increase, so his tenants are footing the bill.

Retirees suffer the most among all demographics in a property tax system. Most of their tax base is in the form of property, not income. Regardless if they are rich or poor, they are hit the hardest.

et98 said:

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Retirees suffer the most among all demographics in a property tax system. Most of their tax base is in the form of property, not income. Regardless if they are rich or poor, they are hit the hardest.

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This is precisely why my parents are leaving TX.

et98 said:

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Property taxes are immoral and they violate the basic premise of property rights.

You never really own your property in Texas. You are merely renting it from the government.

Property taxes are also the most regressive of all the major tax systems. The poorer you are, the more likely you are to rent. The landlord raises rates as his taxes increase, so his tenants are footing the bill.

Retirees suffer the most among all demographics in a property tax system. Most of their tax base is in the form of property, not income. Regardless if they are rich or poor, they are hit the hardest.

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Most rational comment on this thread. As much as human intelligence has increased over the last 100 years, (ok I know some will disagree) I am amazed how many people still support the concept of property taxes.

I would give my left nut, pay income tax and pay sales tax on EVERYTHING, including my house and property, to be able to own my home and property free and clear from the government and not have to deal with the beat down, stress and drain on productivity of having to deal with the appraisal boards every year.

And yes I have heard all the sad, horror stories from everyone with a special interest about how we cannot tax this segment of the population or this segment of industry because it will "decimate" them and overall getting rid of property taxes is not SMART. I have news for you, the government loves property taxes because they will always have you by the balls - how smart is that?

Artorias said:

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zooguy96 said:

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Artorias said:

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I have come to loathe the entire concept of property taxes, especially how they are handled here in Texas.

One of the big reasons we are moving to Tennessee.

---

We had a starter home in Leander with .25 acres of land in a neighborhood and paid $5k in taxes.

Same size house (here in TN) with a $100,000 higher value, much nicer finished, and 1.5 acres of land - and we pay $1,100 a year in taxes.

We couldn't move here fast enough. Plus, no extended 100+ days and some snow.

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What part of TN did you guys end up in? We are looking around East Tennessee primarily.

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Maryville.

This was coming the second they declared state of emergency and kept perpetuating and exaggerating Covid.

Tax rates were set to drop this year after many years of hard work put in by republicans in the state congress. School taxes were especially going to come down. But this little loophole pretty much means they can ignore the bill that was voted on by Texans and do whatever they want. It's absolutely absurd. These people should be hung for their attempt to circumvent the will of the people.

It takes 4 to make a quorum, 3 yes to pass a tax increase. This happened right before the 3.5% increase went into law, both R commissioners were a no show. No quorum, no vote.

Houston has been predicting draconian cuts to services, same with Harris County. Tax receipts are way down so there will be a budget shortfall.

What'll be interesting is if the R's show, make a huge deal about why the increase is immoral and let the 3 D's vote yes to use against them in the election.

When will we all, together, simply not pay?

At the same time, property taxes ensure capital efficiency in land use. It makes no sense to build a house and let it sit empty while it appreciates. You have to have renters to cover at least the property taxes. It prevents Chinese investors from swooping in driving up prices because they use it as an investment vehicle.

Thank god for rural Texas. I'll bet our tax revenue is up since more people were forced to shop local, and out of towers have been coming here when they couldn't get supplies in the city.

Artorias said:

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I have come to loathe the entire concept of property taxes, especially how they are handled here in Texas.

One of the big reasons we are moving to Tennessee.

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Don't be naive. They are going to get their chunk of flesh whether it be in the form of additional sales tax, income tax, tolls on the road, registration fees or property and ad valorem tax. No matter where you live, the government is the beast that needs feeding...trick is to find the smallest beast which typically means stay away from big cities and live in rural and outlying areas. This is not a Tennessee vs Texas thing, this is an urban vs rural thing.

We need to focus more on local government elections and less on the national elections. Why do I know more about AOC than my local representative? The president of the United States doesn't affect my life nearly as much as my local officials.

Frok said:

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We need to focus more on local government elections and less on the national elections. Why do I know more about AOC than my local representative? The president of the United States doesn't affect my life nearly as much as my local officials.

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This has been so far lost on so many. Unfortunately, our lack of focus locally is what gets us these crackpot mayors and career students like Lina Hidalgo who have never participated in the real world.

et98 said:

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Property taxes are immoral and they violate the basic premise of property rights.

You never really own your property in Texas. You are merely renting it from the government.

Property taxes are also the most regressive of all the major tax systems. The poorer you are, the more likely you are to rent. The landlord raises rates as his taxes increase, so his tenants are footing the bill.

Retirees suffer the most among all demographics in a property tax system. Most of their tax base is in the form of property, not income. Regardless if they are rich or poor, they are hit the hardest.

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It is an interesting argument with validity. On the other hand, land/property owners have almost always been the ones to pay the brunt of the taxes throughout history. On the surface, this makes sense to me. The land and property are what we have, and what our infrastructure primarily supports. Fire, police, roads, etc. support property, and we leave it to the property owners primarily to figure out how to pass this expense down to non-property owners. This encourages the productive use of property.

I have had issues in the past with the "theoretical" nature of property values, and the increase every year but this too serves a purpose. If it were capped at the value the property was purchased, this would be a HUGE drag on real estate and the economy.

Ultimately I believe the problem is in the process of deciding valuations and in ever increasing spending. Using public tax money for public education is another major issue worth debating, as this is somewhat different than fire, police, and traditional infrastructure.

Seattle is never going to get better. The poster who lives there should move. Harris County still has a chance to rebound if we get rid of that Marxist ***** (city of Houston is ****ed though). I live in Harris County and I have the best representative in the House and the best Senator. Just got to get rid of Dora before she causes any more trouble.

WorkerBee said:

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et98 said:

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Property taxes are immoral and they violate the basic premise of property rights.

You never really own your property in Texas. You are merely renting it from the government.

Property taxes are also the most regressive of all the major tax systems. The poorer you are, the more likely you are to rent. The landlord raises rates as his taxes increase, so his tenants are footing the bill.

Retirees suffer the most among all demographics in a property tax system. Most of their tax base is in the form of property, not income. Regardless if they are rich or poor, they are hit the hardest.

---

Most rational comment on this thread. As much as human intelligence has increased over the last 100 years, (ok I know some will disagree) I am amazed how many people still support the concept of property taxes.

I would give my left nut, pay income tax and pay sales tax on EVERYTHING, including my house and property, to be able to own my home and property free and clear from the government and not have to deal with the beat down, stress and drain on productivity of having to deal with the appraisal boards every year.

And yes I have heard all the sad, horror stories from everyone with a special interest about how we cannot tax this segment of the population or this segment of industry because it will "decimate" them and overall getting rid of property taxes is not SMART. I have news for you, the government loves property taxes because they will always have you by the balls - how smart is that?

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Government should be small enough to function solely on consumption taxes like sales tax. Income and property taxes just insulate voters from their bad voting choices.

Frok said:

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We need to focus more on local government elections and less on the national elections. Why do I know more about AOC than my local representative? The president of the United States doesn't affect my life nearly as much as my local officials.

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I wish I could blue star this comment 10 times.

The farther down the ballot, the more important the election is. Most laws, regulations, ordinances, fees, fines, utilities & their respective bills, and general rules that we follow every minute of the day are determined at the lowest levels. The amounts of influence on our daily lives decreases at each level as we move up the ballot. Technically, the President is the least important election on the entire ballot once you dive into the details.

Coincidentally, the power of your vote is greatest at the lowest levels and gradually weakens as you go up the ballot. There may be just a few hundred votes total in many local elections. Engaging a couple dozen folks on your Next Door app or Facebook page along with standing on the street corner with a sign for a couple of days would likely sway the election into your favor. One motivated person often makes the difference in local elections. But as you go up the ballot, your vote and your activism becomes a smaller and smaller piece of the pie, so your voice is weakened by the masses.

Local elections are where our votes are most critical and most powerful, however nearly everyone squanders that power every single time by having no idea who's even in the race.

c-jags said:

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Artorias said:

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I have come to loathe the entire concept of property taxes, especially how they are handled here in Texas.

One of the big reasons we are moving to Tennessee.

---

i kinda like the concept of property taxes over state income.

i can live in a decent area that doesn't have insane taxes in a $100k house. i have the option to move to a nicer house or area with a higher property tax if i so desire. i don't really get a say so with a state income tax.


i'd rather just a flat sales tax instead of any income or property tax, but that sort of thought isn't allowed.

ETA: property taxes obviously aren't perfect. in Bell County we had numerous people have their property values "magically" double this last year. contesting it wasn't too hard though.

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This !!! One can choose to move to a rural area with cheaper local property taxes and downsize to similarly cheaper housing (my in-laws did).

You open up state income taxes and once dems get in control watch this expand to state inheritance taxes, wealth taxes, etc.

The fact that we have zero state income tax is a good thing. Don't start !!!

It's like passing that vending machine at work for a year straight and never breaking down for candy/potato chips. Then one day in a moment of weakness/desperation/stress you break down and buy something from the machine. 5 years later you are 20 lbs. heavier and you are wondering what happened.

The first income tax at the Federal level was supposed to only hit the top 1%. How did that eventually work out?

Trump giveth the tax cut and local Dems Taketh away. Ought to be used against them in campaign

C@LAg said:

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Simple solution.

Move.

That is the typical retort I get when I post the idiocy of Seattle.

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And it stands as good advice. Rural areas looking pretty good right now.