What happened to the property tax cut?

You were promised a school 1/3 property tax cut. Where did that tax cut go and why open your pocketbooks even wider in the November election?

November's statewide ballot initiatives total almost $10 billion in state spending. School districts are asking for almost $7 billion more in taxes, and local governments are seeking $9 billion in bonds. Texans will be asked to consider shouldering considerable additional public debt with numerous measures on November 6. Currently, the state's outstanding general-obligation bond debt is $7.5 billion. If passed, the state initiatives could more than double that.

Local governments -- including the 106 school districts seeking tax hikes, 52 school districts, 12 cities, seven counties and three colleges asking for bond approvals -- will hit taxpayers’ pocketbooks even harder.

Where did your tax cut go? We anticipated that property tax savings would evaporate as local governments either increased rates or continued to bring in more property tax revenue as appraisals increased. That is why we championed taxpayer protections which included both revenue cap triggers (which would have provided for voter approval of revenue increases above the growth in population and inflation) and lowering appraisal caps.

Having provided the property tax cut “swap” while not putting taxpayer protections in place, the Legislature’s action was irresponsible. It will result in a tax increase for most taxpayers in only a few years.Texans paid the second highest property taxes as a percentage of home values in the country. With our home values are on the rise, property tax creep is an important issue

Here in Travis County we are hit particularly hard:

30th in property taxes as % of home value
51st in the country in the property taxes you paid; and
53rd in relation to taxes as percentage of income. Williamson County fared as badly – with:
16th in taxes as a % of home value;
49th in property taxes paid
And 60th in the country in taxes as percentage of income.

These figures are not just in relation to the 254 counties in Texas but in all counties across the country. There are 3,143 Counties, Parishes or Independent Cities in the USA Local governments have increased their spending at an unsustainable rate – in 25 years, increasing an astonishing 158% when per-person income increased by 39%. Local government debt has also grown at an alarming rate – increasing 270% in 25 years, more than 5 times the rate of income growth.

Local governments have accumulated $132 BILLION in debt – more than $5,700 for every man, woman and child in Texas. Actually, the interest payments on local government debt in Texas total more than what local governments spend on police and fire protection combined.
Texans need taxpayer protections that put taxpayers in control over how much government we want and are willing to pay for -- and we should not call a school tax increase a "rollback" election. We should also end taxpayer-funded lobbying and stop government spending our money to advertise (you got it, to take mroe of our money).