woodiewood said:
Hornbeck said:
As a CS taxpayer and HOA President, Craig, I have zero faith that the current city council isn't running the place off a cliff at high speed. The only one that seems to have a lick of sense is Bob Yancy. In fact, I think things like the Macy's debacle is kicking in the afterburners. I know several rank and file city employees that think the place is run in a haphazard and shoddy manner as well.
The folks voting and controlling city government though, have their taxes frozen, and vote as a block. Very similar to electing a Yell Leader at the big school. One minority of uniform wearing students votes as a single unit, and they impose their will. The sad part about the elderly action network is that they face no consequences for their actions financially. You and I do, the guys paying the bills, but they only care about their agenda. That is pretty clear to me, and we see this reflected in the city council.
Me on the other hand, bought a house in 2018 for $285k and current values are around $550k. I have not seen any betterment of quality of life in the tax increases the ISD, County, and City have thrust upon me over the past six years. In fact, I'd say it's diminished if anything.
I *do not care* about the RATE, Nancy Berry and Duane Peters, I care about the *amount*. That has gone up, and continues to go up. The School District is following suit. Reckless spending, and more debt. At some point, we will hit a breaking point. I think we are seeing this in the number of businesses closing at a fast rate.
I work in sales, and do multimillion dollar deals regularly. The government officials around here seem to think they are used car salesmen "rocking a four square" telling us our taxes went down. I beg to differ. I have made not so idle threats on this board that I should sell my half million dollar, 1900 square foot *manse* and buy some land in the country, with a lower tax rate. I own a house and rental property, I'm a guy paying the bills, and I for one am not happy. I'm all for some accountability, and a fresh perspective.
I think the total tax bill increases to property owners is a major driving force in the growth of the adjoining counties.
If I was moving to the BCS area, I would look at buying in locations in Grimes county like King Oaks or over around Caldwell.
One of the factors we have here affecting the appraised values are that many A&M former student retirees and others are desiring to move back and are willing to pay above market for the location they want. Two homes near me sold for 30% above what past six months comps indicated their value. The apprasal district then uses those sales to determine neighboring appraised values.
There is a group moving back that have significent equity in their homes and savings to pay whatever it takes to get a home in their desired location.
Property taxes each year should not go up more than the cost of living for the owners of the property. Anything necessary above that should go to the voters for approval.
I think you are touching on something that is also a cause of concern. People either simply cannot afford to live here or chose not to live here. I get it, we need to be YELL LEADERS for our home city. But the data is clear as day.
I know several dozen people who can no longer afford to even rent a house. Two couples I am friends with had their rent go up nearly $250 PER MONTH. That over $2,400 extra a year, just to have a roof over your head. Their wages are nearly the same and other necessity's (food, gas, insurance etc) are up 20 to 50%. They just threw up their hands and moved to Grimes county. The other ones moved to Burleson county.
So, just think about it: $2,400 on top of everything else has been removed from local economic growth just to live in CS. Who blames them for moving?
Now, why did the rent go up? Taxes. Plain and simple. The landlords just pass that cost on because they have bills to pay too. So you have a situation where the budget requirements (see OP of this thread) of COCS are putting downward pressure on people living here. So rather than facilitate thriving in COCS - we are not. And while some data shows we are cheaper to live here (which is great and something definitely to be proud of) COCS is not exactly making it so -- REF the folks I just mentioned.
There are certain (IMHO) structural changes we need to make in regards to our approach to our fiscal future.
This City is now at
$500,000,000/year budget. If you are trying to run that budget like we are still a small but growing town than a lot of policy's are not going to be built around LONG TERM goals.
We need to
PRIORITIZE and ORGANIZE our city government and the departments therein. EDIT:****To put numbers down, over the past four year peoples tax bills have gone up over a total $800 (average home around $250K) $800 over four years. When you aggregate that number, it is a little shocking but the number is what it is. Just straight forward math. $800 on average extra than four years ago is now going toward GOV balance sheet rather than economic growth and private wealth.
