Posted on 06/15/2004 6:35:34 AM PDT by Theodore R.
County adopts tax freeze for senior citizens Disabled also to get break on property levy
BY JOHN REYNOLDS AVALANCHE-JOURNAL
Elderly and disabled homeowners will soon be eligible for a break in their county taxes following the Lubbock County commissioners' decision Monday to freeze the groups' property taxes.
The vote, which passed unanimously, follows voters' passage last fall of state Proposition 13, which authorized local governments to freeze taxes paid by the two groups.
Until then, a tax freeze for homeowners 65 or over ap plied only to school taxes.
The average household savings should amount to about $41 per year, according to figures supplied by the county.
The freeze will not go into effect until next year. This year's tax figures will serve as a baseline figure, according to commissioner Patti Jones.
Proposition 13 passed in September with 81 percent of the vote statewide. In Lubbock County, 89 percent of the voters backed the freeze, a message heard loud and clear by county commissioners, Jones said.
"When that large a percentage of the voters say that, it's our responsibility (to respond)," commissioner Kenny Maines said.
Commissioners, though, will need to find a way to make up the revenue lost through the tax freeze. The county expects to lose about $645,000 next year because of the freeze, according to county figures.
The lost revenue amounts to about 1.6 percent of the county's $40 million budget.
Taking roughly $250 million off the county's tax roll will consequently raise the county's effective tax rate, commissioner James Kitten said.
"In essence, (the voters) voted for a tax increase for themselves, those that don't qualify (for the freeze)," he said.
Maines noted that the tax break freezes the dollar amount paid by the elderly or disabled homeowner.
"It's not a freeze on valuation," he said. "(The value) can go from $100,000 to $200,000. It won't change the real dollar amount."
Appraisal increases due to voluntary home improvements would be exempt from the freeze, though, Maines said.
The lost revenue will have to be made up by redistributing the tax burden because "the government still has to operate," he said.
"I'm just speaking from a retiree's point of view," said Lubbock homeowner Bill Burt, but "it sounds great to me."
The 76-year-old, who moved to Lubbock from Seagraves about 13 years ago, said he's benefited enormously from the school tax freeze.
He moved into his South Lubbock home eight years ago, and his school taxes were frozen at between $1,400 and $1,500 per year.
"Gosh, I don't know what it would be if they weren't frozen," Burt said.
He agreed with the freeze as a way to blunt the impact of nearly double-digit percentage increases in property appraisals.
The elderly, who often live on fixed incomes and investment returns made meager by low interest rates, are hit hard by soaring property values, Burt said.
"Our income has become very low because of the economy and the return rates on our investments," he said. "If (the elderly) have paid their fair share, they shouldn't be subject to these arbitrary increases."
Jones warned that the revenue crunch will only worsen over the duration of the freeze because of two factors: the ex pected continued increase in area property values and the aging of the "baby boomer" generation.
Projections show that in 2010, the county will lose more than $900,000 in revenue; the loss will jump to about $1.8 million in 2020, according to county figures.
"Is this a fair system?" Maines asked. "That's a question they'll be asking 10 to 20 years from now."
john.reynolds@lubbockonline.com 766-8725
Two levels of citizenship in Lubbock County ? What about county employees, the deputy sheriffs, Floyd the barber, etc ?
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