Rabble-rousing over property tax relief

There’s little else that will do more to drive local business and political leaders into the Democratic camp looking for help than the continued assault by Texas legislators on the rights of citizens to decide what they want for their hometowns.

Of all the complaints I have with the party on the left, the one thing its members have consistently done in Texas is to protect the fundamental strengths of home rule, which will again have to be defended when the Legislature next convenes.

Yes, I know that is a year away. But waiting until then to take a position on issues will be too late. Now is when the agenda is being set, bills are being drafted, and positions formed that will drive decisions that will affect all of us.

The current campaign season is a great time to weigh in on what those seeking to represent us in Austin have in mind.

Among the top issues is the matter of reforming the way local governments manage property taxes. If there is anything more popular than promising tax relief, I’m not sure what it would be.

Still, we all should be cautious about cheering on anyone who simply stands before us and promises to cut or eliminate property taxes. It would be wise to look further than the popular declaration of relieving the drain on our bank accounts.

Here’s what we should know: Losing our option to use our tax money for what we want will be next to impossible to regain, once handed over to the state.

In recent years the property tax reform movement has taken off in a couple of different directions.

One is to substitute a big jump in sales taxes for property taxes. In order to fund the cost of local government services, estimates of how much the sales tax rate would have to be increased varies widely.

Even the most conservative estimates would result in Texas having the highest sales tax in the country. No state’s rate exceeds 10 percent. Ours could go to 14 or 15 percent depending on which goods and services now exempt from a sales tax that would be added to produce the needed revenue.

The list of things then subject to this increased sales tax could include everything you buy. Would you like for your groceries and medicines to be taxed?

Would that result in your taxes to fund city and school budgets being lower than what you are paying in property tax? You deserve an answer to that question and if you can’t get it, you should be intuitively doubtful of being better off.

The other popular approach would be for the state to set some arbitrary cap on how much revenue a city or school district could raise for doing what you want them to do.

Right now you can control that through your choice of city council and school board members and then by fully participating in their annual budget deliberations and decisions.

Governor Abbott has now proposed a limit of growth in property tax revenue for local governments that is below the rate of increased costs of just maintaining current levels of service for growing populations.

If such a measure is adopted, the only thing that would prevent a deterioration in those services would be for two-thirds of voters to approve a tax rate above the indiscriminately imposed state limit.

Since that would happen only in theory, we come to the realization that the demagoguery of promised “tax relief” has left us powerless to get back the community we once had.

That’s why I will be among those reminding our Republican representatives that the most conservative of principles is to leave the people in charge. Not the state.

This story was originally published January 19, 2018 at 3:16 PM with the headline "Rabble-rousing over property tax relief."