Posted on 08/30/2025 6:01:07 AM PDT by cuz1961
Run Time 54 m.
/ " started noticing something was off in home appraisals,” says Mitch Vexler, whistleblower and expert on property valuations. He tells Daniela Cambone: “They were inflating property values to jack up taxes, and that was feeding into trillions in school bond debt that I believe will spiral.” On the scope of the problem, Vexler is blunt: “We’re talking about $5.1 trillion in school bonds that are based on these inflated appraisals. That’s massive—this is a ticking time bomb for local governments and taxpayers alike.” He warns of consequences for the bond market: “School districts are relying on this debt, and if the real numbers catch up, there’s no way they can sustain these payments. We’re looking at a potential collapse if nothing changes.”
At this point we need death penalties, and it isn't about the money.
I thought you couldn’t get value/appraisal raised the year after you had the value/appraisal lowered.
Thanks for posting.
Where does property value enter your equation? Or are you saying the tax should be solely based on square footage?
“...Property taxes are immoral. If they must be used, then they should only be assessed on the value of the house at the time of original sale, and the valuation should only change on the next sale. Otherwise, is taxation on an unrealized gain....”
Amen!!!
Property taxes are the most abused, insideous tax there is....it’s plain outright evil. It’s literally a legalized ‘shake-down’ and legalized theft if one doeasn’t pay. And it’s year after year after year.....it financially annilates many of the elderly on fixed income.
One doesn’t own anything, one just ‘rents’ it from the government.
There’ gotta be better, fairer way than this outright atrocity....
The Texas House pushed forward a proposal Monday aimed at containing property tax bills by putting tighter restrictions on cities and counties.
The legislation would further limit how much more in property tax revenue cities and counties can collect each year without voter approval. Under state law, that limit sits at 3.5%. The bill would take that limit down to 1%.
“I believe that we need to venture and do everything we can at the state level to provide lower taxes to our constituents,” said state Rep. Morgan Meyer, R-University Park, who carried Senate Bill 10 in the House.
The bill, which passed the Senate earlier this month, cleared the Texas House by a 78-52 vote.The Senate will either accept changes House lawmakers made to the bill or find a compromise.
Such a limit comes at a tricky time for localities. Cities and counties have already had their budgets crimped by the state’s current limit on property tax revenue enacted in 2019. The cost of paying for essential services like police and fire protection and road construction have only grown since then as the state’s population boomed. Localities have also brought in less revenue from sales taxes thanks to a slowing economy. Federal pandemic relief dollars have all but dried up, and there’s uncertainty over future federal funding.
Local officials and Democratic lawmakers raised concerns that cities’ and counties’ public safety spending and ability to recruit police officers, firefighters and paramedics as well as maintain equipment needed to respond to public safety calls would take a hit under the proposed limit. Police and fire spending tend to make up the majority of a city or county’s budget. City and county officials asked lawmakers last week to consider some kind of carveout for public safety spending.
“Ever wonder why your property taxes only go up?”
Blame Republican President Nixon’s revenue sharing.
School Districts have the “opportunity” to receive Federal matching funds. If they can’t get raise the matching funds, they “leave free money on the table”. When bond issues and taxes are put before the school boards...and the taxpayers... a major argument is “We can’t leave free money on the table.”
Of course, the Feds seem to have unlimited ability to borrow money. Local government doesn’t.
Consider a hybrid.
Some classes could be large in front of a screen.
Some could be mid-sized. Some could be small.
Some could be at home, individualized.
The internet allows for this mix for “lectures”.
Mid-sized and small groups are best for “discussion and questions”. Teacher assistants would staff both large, mid-sized and small groups. Many times this is better than individualized when the students family setup is less than ideal.
Bottom line: We need public schools and school boards to experiment with a variety of situations. It might be that what works in one place does not work in another.
Abolish the Federal Department of Education and its ability to steer everyone into one-size-fits-all
My school district has 10k less kids (about 1/5th) than it did a decade ago but somehow the same budget. I guess I should count myself lucky it has not gone up 20%.
“I thought you couldn’t get value/appraisal raised the year after you had the value/appraisal lowered.”
Property values are reset every two years, using sales from the 2 years prior to the reset. I’ve had taxes go up and down over the years. Because of the 2-year lag, your taxes can go down as your property value is rising, or your taxes can go up as your property is losing value.
Good luck getting that system changed. The spiff you get for paying those taxes is a tax-free sale of your principal residence. I’ve used that to my advantage multiple times by converting rentals and/or second homes to principal residences, avoiding taxation on hundreds of thousands of dollars in property value raises.
The thanks goes to the tb2ker who posted this piece on that other board, that’s where I found it.
Some real sharp news hounds over there .
( I was banned from there, twice /-), bumped heads with the board owner, but I still lurk there cuz there are members there I truly care for , and watch for prayer requests . Like Sisquemom ,who has a home endangered by the fire out there right now. And sat and fruity 👋 )
Many thanks for the info; I was referring to the Texas law about the effect on the next year of a successful lowering of a property appraisal value one year.
Where is this ‘property values reset every two years’ done; is it done in certain areas of Texas?
Local school district tried to pass a >$100 million bond saying it wouldn’t raise taxes. They were going to just take all of the principal that had already been paid back and squander that. No new taxes!
And, this is different from the job DJT pulled on his MaroLago property. He said it was worth $XX initially, and banks decreased that but then approved. A contract negotiation.
This instance looks like bonds were over valued so that taxes could be pumped up. Say what?
If the schools default, no sympathy. They are cesspits.
Property taxes feeds the government monster. These cities counties have no effing right to charge people to live in their homes.
How they ever got the people to go along with these punitive heavy handed taxes is crazy.
Pay 30 or 40 years in property taxes, the elderly finally pay off their homes, and they still are forced to keep paying rent to the local corrupt governments? That's nuts.
Someone stuck an amendment in the House bill that puts a loophole in there that, under certain circumstances, allows taxes to be raised back to the original threshold.
Its Alabama, specifically Jefferson County. They have done it, don’t know if they are allowed to, but they have. Sadly, 2 days after my last hearing the property adjustment board was in my neighborhood photographing properties again.
Sorry, I used to live in Texas long ago, now in Colorado. Here properties are assessed every 2 years, using the prior two years of sales data. It sounds like Texas assesses every year? That doubles the cost of doing assessments.
Colorado has a 5.25% income tax, Texas has none but does tax me on capital gains from Texas land sales even though I don’t live there. My Colorado accountant was surprised about that.
Property tax valuation by the government is only loosely correlated to actual property value, i.e., they’ve always “lied”.
That’s why, when local governments need more money, they either change the rate, or change the assessed value.
Now, when it comes to bonds, what percentage of the bond payments make up the spending? If it’s too high, they will have big problems because they are unwilling to cut spending.
If you’re in Texas and over age 65, look up a form 50-126 (I will post a thread on it).
It defers property taxes until you sell your property.
With today’s inflated values one can defer property taxes until death.
Waiting to see how the changes that Abbott proposed to over 65 property taxes changes things.
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