26 replies to this topic

[David Love]

Does it seem that it's just getting worse?

COMPARISON
How do Texas property taxes stack up against other states?

Source: The Wall Street Journal, March 9, 2005
Annual property tax for homes valued at $189,000

Houston, Tx
$189,000
Tax: $6,020
3,095 square feet with 4 bedrooms and 2-1/2 baths

Davenport, Fla
$189,900
Tax: $876
1,847 square feet with 3 bedrooms and 2 baths

Mt. Vernon, Ind.
$189,900
Tax: $1,831
2,214 square feet with 3 bedrooms and 2 baths

Downtown Fort Worth Tx
$189,000
Tax: $5,972.92
Using Tarrant County Tax Estimator

026 - CITY OF FORT WORTH - 0.86 - 1,625.40
220 - Tarrant County - 0.2715 - 513.13
223 - TARRANT REGIONAL WATER DIST. - 0.02 - 37.8
224 - JPS HEALTH NETWORK - 0.235397 - 444.9
225 - TARRANT COUNTY COLLEGE - 0.13938 - 263.43
601 - FT WORTH PID #1(DOWNTOWN) - 0.12 - 226.8
905 - FORT WORTH ISD - 1.514 - 2,861.46

[David Love]

THE BILLS

Texas Legislature passes tax-reform bills

The Texas Legislature passed sweeping tax measures to reduce the burden on property owners and implement a low, broad-based business tax in the state:

HB 1 reduces property tax rates by $0.17 in the first year. It also deters local taxing jurisdictions from eating up the tax reduction with rapidly increasing local rates. The bill also includes the following provisions:

Provides a $2,000 salary increase for teachers
Helps equalize school funding and recapture of funds sent back to the state via the Robin Hood funding formula Moves the public-school start date to the fourth Monday in August, which falls between Aug. 22 and Aug. 28 Requires four years of math, science, English, and social studies beginning with the freshman class of 2007 Adds new writing requirements to the high school curriculum Calls for more transparency of school district expenditures Encourages increased graduation rates by offering intervention programs and flexible instruction hours for at-risk students Provides school districts with an additional $275 per high school student

HB 2 dedicates all the revenue raised from HB 3, HB 4, and HB 5 to property-tax reduction until the maintenance and operations tax rate reaches $1 per $100 valuation.

HB 3 modernizes the state’s business tax. Loopholes in the current business tax create a situation where only 1 out of 16 businesses pay. HB 3 is a low-rate, broad-based solution. Under the new plan, the primary franchise tax rate will be lowered from 4.5% to 1%. Businesses will pay 1% on gross receipts (retailers and wholesalers will pay 0.5% due to their smaller profit margins). Businesses will also be able to deduct either their cost of goods sold or their employee compensation, including benefits. Sole proprietorships and general partnerships are exempt from the franchise tax, as are all businesses that gross $300,000 or less.

HB 4 tightens the language and the requirements for the sale of motor vehicles so that buyers accurately state the proper sales price from used-vehicle transactions. (This bill is commonly referred to as the vehicle liar’s affidavit.)

HB 5 increases the tax on the sale of tobacco products to raise additional revenue for property tax relief. The bill raises the tax $1 per pack and brings in an estimated $623 million to the state in 2007.

The tax reform package gives property owners an approximate one-third reduction in school property taxes and provides property wealthy districts with their first Robin Hood relief since that program’s inception in 1993. The package includes a property tax cut of 11% this year and a total of 33% in 2007. This plan also increases education spending by about $1.8 billion a year.

[Keller Pirate]

David, you have posted on my favorite topic. I understand Texas is one of 7 states without income tax and they have to make it up somehow. What I really would like to know is how Florida, a no income tax state manages to keep their property taxes so much lower than here?

Texas has ninth highest property tax burden


By Marc A. Levin
(Created: Wednesday, January 3, 2007 4:09 PM CST)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


As a new year dawns, Texans should be looking forward to exploding fireworks and expanding opportunities. Unfortunately, many families cannot help but feel financially deflated by the property tax bill that has come due for 2006.

Indeed, a new national study shows Texas has the ninth highest property taxes in the nation as a percentage of personal income.

Early January will bring anticipated recommendations for property tax relief from Gov. Rick Perry’s Texas Task Force on Appraisal Reform. The state’s taxpayers must hope the Legislature will both heed those recommendations, and at the same time return the $15 billion surplus to taxpayers as tax relief.

For much too long, Texans angry over their property taxes have been dismissed as selfish misers. The conventional wisdom has been that Texas is one of the nation’s lowest tax states and complainers should just be glad they don’t live in Massachusetts. However, the Tax Foundation’s national report on property taxes released earlier this month shows Texas homeowners are being drowned in rising property taxes, forcing some to flee their homes for the safer ground of lower appraised property.

The report documents how property taxes have skyrocketed relative to personal incomes. From 1999 to 2005, property tax appraisals in Texas went up 75 percent, while personal incomes rose only 35 percent.

This is the result of rising property appraisals, on which state and local governments have been cashing in rather than rolling back tax rates accordingly. No wonder many Texans are struggling to simply pay their property tax bill.

The report not only reveals that Texas has higher property taxes than 80 percent of other states; it also shows that the property tax burden is particularly severe in several Texas localities.

For example, residents of Houston endure the highest effective property tax rate of any major city in the nation at $2.99 per $100 valuation. While other cities had a much higher statutory rate, they had significant exemptions. As a result, Houston's effective property tax rate is nearly three times that of New York City and more than five times that of Denver.

In addition, Fort Bend, Williamson, and Tarrant counties made the Tax Foundation's dubious list of the 20 counties with the highest median property taxes paid as a percentage of the median home value. The other 20 counties were in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Illinois.

This was out of the Southlake paper and there was more to it, but it does give some food for thought.

[David Love]

What I don’t understand is the Texas Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional to burden “home owners” with the cost for public education. Perry managed to get changes passed, yet the education system utilized “well known” loopholes to saddle home owners with the same costs. Net result, taxes were nearly unchanged and in most cases went up.

So now we have a 14 billion dollar surplus, Perry has stated he wants a lot of it to go back to home owners, but when has ANY governing body given back tax dollars, really.

What I would really like to get answered: If it’s unconstitutional to burden home owners with the costs of education, why are we still paying for it?

[Sam Stone]

To answer your question about FL, Keller Pirate, look at the square footage. That's the problem wiith this comparison. Just because the homes have identical values for the purposes of taxation doesn't mean it's an appropriate comparison.

My own multi-point plan for easing the burden on homeowners:
1. State: Get rid of the school district property tax. Institute a state income tax. Distribute the money evenly per pupil.
2. City: Stop giving away tax abatements and rebates to big corporations. These make swiss cheese out of the tax basse and have the effect of keeping everyone else's rates high.
3. State: Allow counties and cities to levy a local option motor fuels tax that can be used for road construction. That way people who are using the roads are paying for them and we won't have to collect so much property tax. Oh, and unlike the stupid motor fuels tax laws at the state and federal level, let's index it to inflation.
4. State: Speaking of indexing things to inflation, require TIF districts to index their base to inflation.

None of these things will come to pass, of course.

[Keller Pirate]

I don't know if they really said it was unconstitutional to burden homeowners with the bill for education but I think they said they way it was financed in Texas was unconstitutional. I believe they arrived at that conclusion on the basis of equal rights.

Every student in the state is entitled to the same and equal education. A student in Del Rio or Brownsville should get the same education as a student in the Park Cities or Southlake. The problem is property rich school districts spend more per student than property poor districts creating an unequal system. The light bulbs in Austin came up with Robin Hood to spread the wealth around but that doesn't solve the problem. The state was trying to push their responsibility off on someone else. Education should be funded by the state and everyone should have an equal spot at the money table.

The big question is where will the state get money for education? They don't get anything from property taxes. They do clean up on sales taxes.

The problem also exists with the cities taking more money from higher appraisals without reducing the tax rate. This leads agencies to spend money irresponsibly. Take TCC downtown campus. They probably could have built 2 schools for what the DT campus will cost. But, they have the money in hand so why not built a monument? They really should have lowered their tax rate as more money rolled in instead of collecting so much it burned a hole in their pockets.

Take the PID for DT you pay into. I would think taxing homeowners to fund business kick backs is unfair. This should be a tax on business.

Businesses big and small and even cities and counties are paying lobbyists to spread money around the legislature in Austin. I find it appalling that a city would pay a lobbyist to act against its citizen’s best interest. Unless you agree with government that they know what is best for the citizens.

Go to http://www.tml.org/l...-testimony.html and see how hard the the Texas Municipal League is fighting appraisial and revenue caps and elections.

[cjyoung]

My own multi-point plan for easing the burden on homeowners:
1. State: Get rid of the school district property tax. Institute a state income tax. Distribute the money evenly per pupil.

I'd be happy if they would allow us to choose schools using vouchers.

[David Love]

The Texas Supreme Court later issued its ruling in a school-finance lawsuit and gave the legislature until June 1 to address what it found to be an unconstitutional statewide property tax.

"For years Texas has needed a new tax structure that protects jobs, reflects the modern economy, broadens the tax burden and lightens the load of property owners," Perry said. "Now we have that plan.

"It is a responsible plan that appeals to Texans' sense of fairness, encourages investments in jobs and workers, discourages harmful addictions like smoking, and utilizes a portion of the surplus to give the people a well-deserved tax cut without leaving future legislatures a mountain of debt."

tomato / toma'to

I thought taxes were always calculated on dollar value, not square footage, so a $189,000 house in Houston is still $189,000 in Fort Worth for taxation purposes.

From what I've read, I should have seen an 11% decrease in the school tax I pay, I didn't see that, not sure if it was even 5%, for 2007 we should see it go down by a full 33%, compare it to 2006... I'm not counting on it.

I get the impression it's just going to mean another taxing entity or two will jump in to pick up the slack.

[Sam Stone]

What was unconstitutional was the fact that property tax revenues were being pooled and redistributed to poorer school districts. This was done to meet Federal standards of equity. The Texas Constitution, however, expressly forbids a statewide property tax. The Texas Supreme Court found the pooling and redistribution of local property taxes to be a de facto statewide tax. The possible solutions would have been to amend the constitution to allow a statewide property tax, amend the constitution to allow an income tax, or cobble together financing by raising some taxes and imposing new ones, and hoping nobody notices.

[David Love]

Thought I read in there somewhere that no single group should share a disproportionate percentage of tax, or educational tax, which is where property owners had fallen.

I’d think if it was “just” the Robyn Hood practices they would have said “Robyn Hood” etc.. found unconstitutional, yet, where ever I see the unconstitutional comment it’s in a property tax article.

Perhaps it’s just wishful thinking on the reporting side….

I’ve seen Realtor groups that have formed to work on the property tax problems, are there any groups or entities of property owners that organize and focus the group’s political force to enact some long term meaningful change in the current practice?

[safly]

What I really would like to know is how Florida, a no income tax state manages to keep their property taxes so much lower than here?

Look at what FLorida has to offer on a much more smaller land scale. OIL? SHIPPING? All have to give money to the state. Those Royalties or leases really do help out.

Next Q: When the Texas oil boom headed south (80's???), did the shared property tax burden go UP???

BIG fan of HB3!!!

[Sam Stone]

That's a good point about the downtown PID, KP. That PID was put into place long before there was anyone living downtown. So at its inception is was not meant as a tax on residential property. However, anyone choosing to live and own property within the PID presumably knows about it before they make their purchase, so from that point of view it is fair.

Safly, re the 80s oil bust, severence taxes at the state level had been a big part of the state revenue portfolio and dropped off precipitously. I imagine though, that property values being inherently more stable, were affected only modestly in most places. The rise in ISD rates is probably and ironically due to Robin Hood itself. Also consider the explosive growth the metroplex has seen in the last 20 years. There's been a tremendous influx of families with children and low density residential property just doesn't generate the same revenue yields as other types of property.

[JKC]

The PID also provides services that arguably benefit business and homeowners alike i.e. streetcleaning, security etc.

And don't worry about the commercial real estate losing an opportunity to share, the overall increase in valuation from 2005 to 2006 for commerical property downtown was right at 80% (in the PID boundary).

[gdvanc]

Houston, Tx
$189,000
Tax: $6,020
3,095 square feet with 4 bedrooms and 2-1/2 baths

Davenport, Fla
$189,900
Tax: $876
1,847 square feet with 3 bedrooms and 2 baths

Mt. Vernon, Ind.
$189,900
Tax: $1,831
2,214 square feet with 3 bedrooms and 2 baths

Downtown Fort Worth Tx
$189,000
Tax: $5,972.92

Odd list of cities. How well does Davenport, pop. ~ 2,000, represent Florida?

David, you have posted on my favorite topic. I understand Texas is one of 7 states without income tax and they have to make it up somehow. What I really would like to know is how Florida, a no income tax state manages to keep their property taxes so much lower than here?

Texas has ninth highest property tax burden

Florida has a somewhat different tax structure. Property taxes made up only 34.4% of all state and local taxes in Florida in 2004, where they made up 43.5% of all state and local taxes in Texas. I think only New Jersey was higher in terms of percentage of taxes coming from property taxes. Florida was slightly higher in other categories (sales, selective sales, corporate income, other). That's where they make up the difference.

Overall, Texas has a lower tax rate (total state and local) than Florida as a percentage of income. Lower per capita, too.

I've recently read a couple of (not-particularly-recent) articles on problems state and local governments will face with current tax revenue sources. For those interested:

Are State and Local Revenue Systems becoming Obsolete? (National Tax Journal, September 2002)
Metropolitan Taxation in the 21st Century (National Tax Journal, September 1998)

One says there's no good "win-win" solution; one proposes land value taxation as a possible alternative (as I believe Sam has suggested in another thread).

The site (http://ntj.tax.org) has a number of articles available to the public, but only those articles that are at least 2 years old.

[gdvanc]

meant to add a couple of sources of data...

Federal Tax Administrators: State Tax Comparisons (some data is state only and some is state + local combined)

U.S. Census Bureau: State & Local Government Tax Collections (the data source for FTA's data summaries above)


so someone come up with a new plan for reasonable taxes and report back to us.

[Bradleto]

Taxes are rarely required...if, for example, the federal government wants or needs money, it can just print it... we aren't on a gold standard anymore. As a matter of fact, that is exactly what it has been doing for decades now and we see the effects expressed in devalued dollars month after month, year after year.

But, back to taxes. The U.S. became the largest industrialized nation in the world by 1912, and it did it without a personal income tax ever in its history, except for a brief period or two to finance/pay off war-related debts. We got a personal income tax a year later in 1913 and it only applied to the very wealthiest citizens, and it wasn't a very large revenue source for decades to come. Again, it was not necessary or critical to the growth or well-being of our economy.

So, why do they tax us? It is not because they need our money... the FRB can print its own (and does)... it is because they want to "redistribute" our wealth and income as they see fit from one group to another, and to finance their goals over our personal goals. Without an income tax, we'd actually pay taxes in the form of inflation on our consumption... a consumption tax if you will. That ain't gonna happen... it's not nearly progressive enough as low income earners "consume" more of their incomes than the rich. That's easy to fix, but there is no political advantage in "easy."

So, why do homeowners in Fort Worth pay huge property taxes? Someone wanted to redistribute the wealth and income of its homeowners to finance schools, city services, etc. for everyone else. Wealth redistribution is at work here, as usual.

For sure, Fort Worth can't "print" money... thank God... but the Feds can and then could pass it along to states to fund public schools and so forth and pass the costs along to us through an inflation tax. It'll never happen... the primary source of power for politicians lies in their ability to take from one group and give it to another. Whatever changes we have seen lately in property taxes (not much) have come about because the burden is so incredibly large on homeowners now that they have finally become a viable political force for politicians to respond to.

Hey! Just curious... I am the product of Fort Worth public schools during the great baby boom generation. Fort Worth built Southwest HS, OD Wyatt, Western Hills HS, and many more public grade and middle schools, all within just a few years. If the baby boomer generation, the so-called pig-in-the-python as it is called... twice as large as the generation before it and after it... if we could build all of those schools in Fort Worth with nary a word or concern over burdensome property taxes back then, what has changed the landscape so dramatically now? Interesting!

Cheers! Brad

[Keller Pirate]

Florida has a somewhat different tax structure. Property taxes made up only 34.4% of all state and local taxes in Florida in 2004, where they made up 43.5% of all state and local taxes in Texas. I think only New Jersey was higher in terms of percentage of taxes coming from property taxes. Florida was slightly higher in other categories (sales, selective sales, corporate income, other). That's where they make up the difference.

Overall, Texas has a lower tax rate (total state and local) than Florida as a percentage of income. Lower per capita, too.

The problem with these per capita averages is they are talking about people with jobs. I saw a Money.com ranking based on a per capita average of $75,000 per year of income. Somehow I don't think that is anywhere near what the Texas per capita income is. The census bureau shows Texas median income per household at $41,959. That lower income would skew the take as a percentage of income up pretty high. Not to mention that Tarrant is ranked as one of the highest 20 counties in the country for property taxes according to the Tax Foundation.

As a retired person my property tax last year was 113% of my pension. I expect to lower that to only 56.5% this year. It is a good thing I have other income. I am foolishly staying in my home even though at least 6 of my neighbors that have retired in the last 3 years have sold and moved to more affordable locations. I'm just stubborn. I bought and paid for my home and I just don't think some faceless government ought to be able to take it away from me just because I don't earn a median income.

[David Love]

I know I factored in property taxes, HOA dues and such before moving downtown, I’m just tired of $500.00 plus per month, and rising fast, of my house payment going to property taxes. It is giving me reason to become more active in politics in general, not exactly sure how yet.

[Sam Stone]

Bradleto, I have to address a few of your statements.

The federal government cannot and will not simply print more money whenever they need more. Besides the runaway inflation that occurs when this happens (other nations try this occasionally and fail miserably), our monetary policy (the money printing authority) and fiscal policy (how much we need and how much we spend) are controlled by different branches of government with different interests. The Fed has very long staggered terms and is run by a bunch of economists who are insulated from the demands of an annual budget. This has very little to do with property taxes.

The city's property tax rate has nothing to do with funding schools because the school districts do that. They set their own rates and have their own elected officials. . . who probably deserve to get booted out of office occasionally, too.

The real reason FW has such "high" property tax rates? There is no one reason. It's a lot of things, which means there's no easy solution either. First off, your tax burden is not made up of just the city's rate. The ISD probably makes up the largest share (darn kids!). Then you've got the city (darn police!), county (darn justice system!), hospital district (darn sick people!), and community college district (who needs edumacation!).

OK, but why does FW have higher rates than most other cities in the Metroplex? For one thing, FW has far more tax exempt property than most other cities in the Metroplex. We have a naval air station, county administration buildings, federal buildings, schools, colleges, hospitals, churches, museums, a convention center, parks, airports, cemetaries and probably a lot of other things I can't even think of right now. And we have more of them than all the little suburbs around us. These are the things that make FW a more interesting place to live with more to do and see and brag about than Southlake or Colleyville or Bedford. But it comes with a price. All of that stuff goes untaxed and everyone else has to subsidize it. You can't have your cake and eat it too.

Another reason FW has higther rates is that our elected officials ike to give away tax abatements and rebates to big corporations. It's ironic because they do this because they (our council members, not the corporations) believe our taxes are too high. Our taxes wouldn't have to be so high if they weren't giving away so much money to the corporations. Our policy should be "just say no." In any case, there is quite a bit of research that shows that tax rates are fairly low down on the list of things that corps take into account when considering a move or new facility. If yall really want the citations, I can dig 'em up.

[Bradleto]

Sam,

I can't really quibble with much of what you have said in response to my comments. I suppose my real point is that most taxes, whether by design or as an unintended consequence, end up falling disproportionately on one group over another and often due to political persuasion.

Yes, if a goverment prints too much money, it could end up looking like post WWI Germany of the 1920s. Its declining currency then acted just like a huge tax on consumption and quickly wrecked the German ecomony. This paved the way for the development of a most unfortunate political career.

Brad

[Sam Stone]

Why don't we more heavily tax the suburbs and not tax the urban dwellers therefore getting more urban living and less suburbs? Don't we get less of what we tax and more of what we don't tax?

We can't tax the suburbs because they are separate cities with their own elected officials, governments, and tax rates. Cheap gas and highways make it viable to live out in the suburbs. You want the suburbs to pay their fair share? Raise the gas tax and don't pay for any road construction, improvement, or maintenance out of anything other than gas taxes AND pay for part of the cost of public transportation out of the gas tax.

[Keller Pirate]

I know I factored in property taxes, HOA dues and such before moving downtown, I’m just tired of $500.00 plus per month, and rising fast, of my house payment going to property taxes. It is giving me reason to become more active in politics in general, not exactly sure how yet.

I feel your pain David, twice as much each month. I was surprised by the few amounts of responses to this thread. I guess most on this forum are happy with what they pay or are renters. When I think about property taxes I look forward. To stay in my paid for house, 10 more years it will cost me $120,000-140,000. Sadly I can't budget exactly because I don't know what the assessor will value my home at. The house itself hasn't paid me a nickel but the city, county and school district are taxing me 50% higher than when I purchased it.

I get upset because even I can see commercial property is way under assessed. gdvanc said from 2005 to 2006 the appraisal went up 80% in the DT PID. I have noticed that and they are still grossly under assessed. Pick out you favorite 30+ story building in DTFW and look the address up on TAD.org. Compare that to the cost of the Omni. I saw one building that went up $40 million in one year. Do you think property values went up that much or some really rich people are getting breaks that homeowners don't?

It seems Ft Worth itself has one of the highest tax rates in this part of the state. That coupled with the fact Tarrant County is one of the 20 highest in the country means Ft Worth could be one of the worst places for property taxes in the whole country. Here is a local comparison chart I found.

2006 Property Tax Rates


Northwest Dallas suburbs
2006 tax rates tax jurisdictions
combined city school county city school county
Argyle 2.39% .39 1.77% .23% Argyle Argyle ISD Denton
Bartonville 2.19% .19 1.77% .23% Bartonville Argyle ISD Denton
Carrollton 2.87% .63 1.68% .55% Carrollton Carrollton-Farmers
Branch ISD Dallas
Colleyville 2.57% .35% 1.57% .65% Colleyville Grapevine-Colleyville ISD Tarrant
Coppell 2.79% .64% 1.60% .55% Coppell Coppell ISD Dallas
Copper Canyon 2.04% .17% 1.64% .23% Copper Canyon Lewisville ISD Denton
Double Oak 2.09% .22% 1.64% .23% Double Oak Lewisville ISD Denton
Flower Mound 2.32% .45% 1.64% .23% Flower Mound Lewisville ISD Denton
Frisco 2.36% .45% 1.58% .33% Frisco* Frisco ISD Collin
Grapevine 2.58% .36% 1.57% .65% Grapevine Grapevine-Colleyville ISD Tarrant
Highland Village 2.44% .57% 1.64% .23% Highland Village Lewisville ISD Denton
Keller 2.69% .43% 1.61% .65% Keller Keller ISD Tarrant
Lewisville 2.33% .46% 1.64% .23% Lewisville Lewisville ISD Denton
Plano 2.38% .47% 1.58% .33% Plano Plano ISD Collin
Southlake 2.90% .46% 1.80% .65% Southlake Carroll ISD Tarrant
The Colony 2.59% .72% 1.64% .23% The Colony Lewisville ISD Denton
Trophy Club 2.63% .73% 1.67% .23% Trophy Club* Northwest ISD Denton
Westlake 2.44% -- 1.80% .65% Westlake Carroll ISD Tarrant

Other DFW metroplex cities and towns
2006 tax rates tax jurisdictions
combined city school county city school county
Addison 2.52% .46% 1.50% .55% Addison Dallas ISD Dallas
Allen 2.67% .56% 1.78% .33% Allen Allen ISD Collin
Arlington 2.90% .65% 1.61% .65% Arlington Arlington ISD Tarrant
Bedford 2.67% .45% 1.58% .65% Bedford Hurst-Euless-Bedford ISD Tarrant
Corinth 2.89% .56% 1.79% .23% Corinth* Lake Dallas ISD Denton
Dallas 2.61% .55% 1.50% .55% Dallas Dallas ISD Dallas
Denton 2.62% .63% 1.76% .23% Denton Denton ISD Denton
DeSoto 3.01% .70% 1.76% .55% DeSoto DeSoto ISD Dallas
Duncanville 2.99% .70% 1.74% .55% Duncanville Duncanville ISD Dallas
Euless 2.71% .49% 1.58% .65% Euless Hurst-Euless-Bedford ISD Tarrant
Farmers Branch 2.73% .49% 1.68% .55% Farmers Branch Carrollton-Farmers
Branch ISD Dallas
Fort Worth 3.02% .86% 1.51% .65% Fort Worth Fort Worth ISD Tarrant
Garland 2.78% .66% 1.54% .55% Garland Garland ISD Dallas
Grand Prairie 2.85% .67% 1.63% .55% Grand Prairie Grand Prairie ISD Dallas
Highland Park 2.14% .23% 1.36% .55% Highland Park Highland Park ISD Dallas
Hurst 2.74% .52% 1.58% .65% Hurst Hurst-Euless-Bedford ISD Tarrant
Irving 2.75% .55% 1.64% .55% Irving Irving ISD Dallas
McKinney 2.76% .59% 1.84% .33% McKinney McKinney ISD Collin
Mesquite 2.84% .62% 1.67% .55% Mesquite Mesquite ISD Dallas
N Richland Hills 2.78% .57% 1.57% .65% N Richland Hills Birdville ISD Tarrant
Richardson 2.76% .58% 1.63% .55% Richardson Richardson ISD Collin
Rockwall 2.56% .43% 1.71% .43% Rockwall Rockwall ISD Rockwall
Rowlett 2.85% .75% 1.54% .55% Rowlett Garland ISD Dallas
University Park 2.20% .29% 1.36% .55% University Park Highland Park ISD Dallas

*City property tax rate includes Municipal Utility District (MUD) tax.

Note: The property tax rates shown above may vary depending on both which entities have taxing authority in the area where a property is located and the exemption(s) for which the owner of a property qualifies.

Sources: Collin, Dallas, Denton and Tarrant Central Appraisal Districts.

Didn't line up to well, sorry.

[Keller Pirate]

I can't stop myself this morning. Read this about the Texas Municipal League. The place the city and county send taxpayer dollars to help them get more taxpayer dollars.

TML Official Legislative Update Calls taxpayer group “radical fringe group… launching an anti-city Jihad”

The Texas Municipal League (TML), in their official Feb 2, 2007 Legislative Update, resorted to conduct unbefitting city officials and the organization that represents them at the State Capitol.

The TML usually focuses on legislative issues in their “Legislative Updates”, but last week regressed to childish and inappropriate behavior in characterizing AFP's Texas Taxpayer Trust Tour and our taxpayer protection agenda as "Anti-City Jihad". Yes, they actually used the word “Jihad”. And though I thought we had seen it all in Texas politics, this is likely unprecedented. (Bullet #3: http://www.tml.org/l...ate_current.htm ).

TML lowered itself and abandoned any pretense of professionalism by the organizations' characterization of citizen efforts to support spending or appraisal caps as an "Anti-City Jihad".

Their use of the term “Jihad” is disturbing. However, according to Merriam-Webster, Jihad is defined as:
1 : a holy war waged on behalf of Islam as a religious duty; also : a personal struggle in devotion to Islam especially involving spiritual discipline
2 : a crusade for a principle or belief

Certainly AFP is a principled organization and we work to support free-market policies, and taxpayer protections. Our agenda centers on our trusting taxpayers to determine how much government we want and are willing to pay for.

But TML’s use of the word “Jihad” calls into question the judgment being used by leadership at TML and TML's behavior puts the taxpayer-funded organization in a most unflattering light.

AFP's position has been and will continue to be to represent Texas citizens who want greater control over the growth of government. For the major city officials' organization to use this type of rhetoric is disgraceful, and we are calling on cities to withdraw their membership from TML.

This is a link to the TML Legislative update: http://www.tml.org/l...ate_current.htm (bullet #3)

And this is the link to the article on AFP calling us a “radical fringe group launching an anti-city Jihad”: http://www.tml.org/l...inge_group.html

These taxpayer-funded lobby groups are just “gifts that keep on giving

[Sam Stone]

If someone will host it, I will e-mail a jpeg map that displays the cumulative tax rates that Tarrant County residents face.

[David Love]

If someone will host it, I will e-mail a jpeg map that displays the cumulative tax rates that Tarrant County residents face.

Send it to me, I have several places I can put it...

[David Love]

Back when interest rates were really low, I believe the taxing entities saw it as a free for all, now that rates are back up, people are taking notice. As for appraised values, I think the only short term choice is to dispute them every year; I know several single parents where I work that schedule that time to go plead their case every year. I’d think the commercial sector sends their attorneys and keep the appraised value at the lowest it can legally be.

I suspect those labeling the general public’s right to organize their collective might as a “Jihad,” are showing their true colors as to how they view the general tax paying public, we’re on the other side. In a political environment where most vote against someone rather than for someone else, makes it very easy to create a list of those you want people to vote against.

This sounds like something you’d hear on Glenn Beck! hmmm...