Posted on 05/29/2003 2:49:56 AM PDT by demkicker
AUSTIN -- A tax relief bill appeared dead Wednesday in the Texas Senate, a victim of local taxing entities unwilling to lose millions of dollars in tax revenues the bill would have given back to Texas homeowners.
House Bill 3223, authored by state Rep. Dwayne Bohac, R-Houston, sought to limit annual property appraisal increases to 5 percent instead of the current 10 percent.
The bill passed the Texas House earlier this month by a unanimous vote and was not expected to face much, if any, opposition on the Senate floor.
Wednesday was the deadline for the Senate to consider any bills or joint resolutions on final reading.
But a majority of 25 senators told Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst they did not want the bill to come to a vote, effectively killing it, according to state Sen. Kyle Janek, R-Houston, the bill's sponsor in the Senate.
A last-minute attempt was being made late Wednesday to revive the bill, but supporters said it appeared unlikely that they could garner the votes to bring the bill back up.
"Kyle and I are getting almost no support," said state Sen. Jon Lindsay, R-Houston, who was asked by Dewhurst to poll senators in an attempt to determine if there was sufficient support for the bill.
Janek said senators were pressured by city and county governments who argued the bill would bankrupt them.
The bill would cut in half the current 10 percent annual cap on homestead appraisals. The bill also limited annual appraisal increases to 5 percent on commercial property and multifamily property such as apartments.
Currently, there is no cap on how much the appraisals on businesses or apartments can increase in a year.
The limit set in this bill, however, would not apply to property appraisals for taxes collected by public school districts and junior colleges. Mineral taxes also would be exempt from the 5 percent cap.
Though the bulk of tax revenues at the local level are generated by school taxes, local governments had a lot at stake because the bill would have forced them to raise taxes to make up for the loss in property value increases.
"They didn't want to give up their guaranteed tax increase, and that's a shame," Bohac said. "What that means is that millions of taxpayers lose."
Bohac said the bill would have controlled the rate of government spending.
"These local taxing entities have to learn to live within their means just like a Texas household does, and they don't want us to do anything that limits their ability to spend as much money as they want to spend," he said.
The bill's future was never assured as it moved through the legislative process. In its various incarnations, the bill seemed to teeter on life support only to be revived by last-minute compromises.
The proposal would have required a vote on a constitutional amendment in a statewide referendum in September.
"I'm confident that this bill will do what we want it to do and this is reduce skyrocketing appraisals without placing an undue burden on taxing districts," Bohac said earlier Wednesday.
Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector Paul Bettencourt has said the bill would have affected more than 1 million homeowners in Harris County but would probably initially have affected about 400,000 homeowners in its first year in 2004.
Property taxes paid by Harris County homeowners have shot up by 73 percent since 1997, Bettencourt said. Twenty years ago, money paid by homeowners represented 31 percent of the state's entire tax rolls. Last year, he said, homeowners made up 48.3 percent.
In Houston, he said, multifamily property values such as apartments have risen 75 percent in the past five years.
The bill had widespread support from homeowners, including a groundswell of support from Houston homeowners, who attended a March 13 hearing when a similar version of the bill was being considered by the Local Government Ways and Means Committee.
That bill, House Bill 474, co-authored by state Rep. Martha Wong, R-Houston, called for a 5 percent cap on homestead appraisals only. Bohac submitted an alternative bill that included multifamily and commercial property.
The bill seemed dead when it appeared before the committee April 28 and members voted against it. But the bill was revived with a compromise that exempted school districts from the 5 percent cap.
The bill's chief opposition has come from law firms that represent clients in disputes over property appraisals and county and city governments who feared the cap would result in less tax revenues.
In Michigan, since 1994, we've had assessment increases capped at no more than the rate of inflation. It's been very helpful in allowing people to keep their homes.
Surprise, surprise, surprise.....</sarcasm>
If responsibility isn't put back where it duly belongs, squarely on the shoulders of these gutless wonders we call elected REPRESENTATIVES of the people then we sheeple will get what we surely deserve. Dan, take C.L.O.U.T. statewide (and get some experienced and proven help) and work to abolish appraisal districts statewide and give that responsibility back to the state legislature and our local politicians where it rightly belongs. Then and only then will we get responsive government on the tax issue.
While you're at it start pushing for a Constitutional amendment to give Texas voters the option of I & R.
MeeknMing, can you ping the Texas list? Thanks.
padfoot_lover
The Harris County Appraisal District is not a taxing entity as this post suggests. I presume the poster does not know the difference between the Appraisal District and the Tax Assessor-Collector. The two are very different agencies.
Furthermore, the real taxing entity, the Tax Assessor-Collector, is headed by an elected official. In Harris County, the agency incorrectly identified as a faceless bureaucracy is headed by Paul Bettencourt, a favorite of KSEV.
(I will allow suggestions that actual municipalities, counties, utility districts, school districts, etc. are the real taxing authorities. However, only out of ignorance can one claim that the county Appraisal District is a taxing entity.)
YES. If it wasn't for all the e-mails, facs, and phone calls by property owners, HB3223 never would have made it out of the House Committee, never mind passing the House, and passing the Senate Committee. This bill was considered dead several times and would have NEVER made it this far without the people being involved.
Ron H. is correct, we need I&R (initative and referendum).
A 5% cap would pretty much guarantee a 5% increase every time.
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