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Liberty wrote: ↑Sun Jul 28, 2019 1:02 pm

philip964 wrote: ↑Sun Jul 28, 2019 12:36 pm https://www.click2houston.com/news/by-t ... erty-taxes

Texas ranked 5th highest for dependence on Property Taxes to raise revenue.

True, but when you don't have an income tax, the only way to decrease the dependence on property tax is to decrease spending.

And polititions don’t like doing that.

https://www.click2houston.com/news/by-t ... erty-taxes

Texas ranked 5th highest for dependence on Property Taxes to raise revenue.

The property for the Astroworld, the large amusement park next to the Astrodome and fronting on Interstate 610 Loop, was appraised at 6 million dollars. It sold for 60 million dollars.

That is how accurate commercial appraisals are.

Ruark wrote: ↑Sat May 04, 2019 4:44 pm

thechl wrote: ↑Thu Apr 11, 2019 9:41 am The real evil is the agricultural exemption. I pay more property tax on my little plot in a suburban neighborhood than many pay for their hundreds of acres that produce little/nothing. But those folks who own vast tracts of land have bought enough legislative influence that the ag exemption will never go away, nor even be modified fairly.

Yeah, they need to take a look at that ag exemption business. Heck, we used to have 25 acres. I found a guy to run a dozen of his sheep on it. Bingo, ag exemption.

I have learned that everyone wants someone else to pay the taxes.

Commercial properties have as one of you has written tons of legal help to appeal their taxes. Most of us don’t.

I noticed a while back the Astroworld property sold for 66 million. It was appraised at about 10 million.

That is pretty normal for sale vs appraisal on expensive commercial property.

howdy wrote: ↑Fri Apr 05, 2019 2:47 pm One of the "good" reasons to turn 65. The only property tax I pay is a MUD tax,and school tax with a much higher exemption percentage. I no longer pay hospital district, port of Houston, county taxes, etc. My tax bill was cut more than 50%. We have a farm in Burleson County with an Ag exemption. The taxes are minimal.

I was very disappointed when I turned 65 for a lot of reasons. One was all the property tax relief I didn’t get.

I’m still being charged for all the add ons like hospital district, but my school tax over 65 exemption was like nothing. My rate was frozen, but the district had an election raising the rate just before I turned 65. I figured the over 65 exemption was 10% just like homestead, not even close.

I remember a time before 1985 and the oil bust when the Homestead exemption was 50%, boy those were the days.

Texas Legislators passed a law saying that if they the local districts did nothing the exemption would be reduced by 10% every year till it became just 10%. So naturally the local elected officials did nothing ( which BTW the news rarely covers when elected officials do nothing)

In Houston we have one more thing. TIRZ. It was designed to help disadvantaged areas redevelop. So it has been used to declare the Galleria, Downtown and Memorial City disadvantaged. Any increase in value in these areas the increase in taxes go back to the owners to spend on things they like to have to improve their areas. So less money to the Government from commercial properties, the more they now depend on homeowners to pay for their increasing costs.

Thus we have the situation we have today.

Property taxes are kind of a wealth tax. Except that you may be poor and still pay a lot.

But not all land in Texas pays. Agricultural land I believe is exempt. So you may own a 10 million dollar ranch, but I assume pay no property taxes.

That area is considered poor, since there is no taxible value.

So to make up for that, Robin Hood comes into play. My district is rich since it has no Ag land. So I get to pay for some of the poor ( but really rich ) places in other parts of the state.

Since that started, I have noticed when I drive in the country, I have seen an explosion of big new fancy high school football stadiums. I think a while back I wrote about a school district building a 20 million dollar water park.

My current pet complaint is about the small property taxes I pay for odd things. Flood control districts, Hospital districts, Port Authorities, and Community College Districts. These used to be small things. Now with my taxes going up 10 percent a year due to reappraisals, they are becoming significant. I now pay more to my hospital district than I pay out of pocket for my own healthcare. I don’t elect any of these people, but every year they get 10 percent more.

I have a friend who does ok. She’s a single mom and paid 750k for a house a while back. It’s all on line. She pays 100k a year in property taxes. She’s getting near retirement. How can she quit work and live in her home.

The problem of course the 10 percent more every year is not enough, I’ll I hear about is them needing more money. The pensions will swamp them all.

And now thanks to Trump it’s not even deductible.

The government can now theoretically tax more than 100 percent of your income.

When they ever mention taxes mine go up. The only exception was Regan.

Last point, no one likes paying taxes. Everyone wants some one else to pay them.