Appraiser scrambles property tax issue [TEXAS]

Houston Chronicle ^ | Dec. 9, 2006 | LOREN STEFFY

[Leftism is Mentally Deranged]

Property tax is confiscating your property a little at a time. If the tax is 5%, then it confiscates your property over a 20 year period.
You get the upkeep, maintenance, insurance, snow shoveling and leaf raking, not the govmnt.

[Zakeet]

Property tax is confiscating your property a little at a time.

Actually, property tax operates under the theory that the government owns the land and you are in fact renting it from them for an annual fee.

In Britain, all of the land is owned by the Crown. Therefore, they don't have property tax -- they have "rates." Rates is a levy paid by the "occupier" and not the "owner." This may seem like a subtle difference, but it is significant enough that your rates are not deductible from your US income tax (because there is no US equivalent).

[jonesboheim]

"It's the 30 percent hike in his property tax appraisal"

That is ridiculously high.

Remember Rick Perry's amazing property tax "cut" he handed Texans right before the election?

Well it just got eaten up by a corresponding magical increase in property value, just as many thought would happen.

[elkfersupper]

Greedy bureaucrat alert.

[Shire]

Please tell me where this great increase in property values in the Metroplex is supposed to be? I just listed my house and I am going to have to sell it for less than I bought it because there is so much new housing that I am competing with. Why buy a used house when you can buy a new one? I am certainly paying taxes on more house than I can sell it for.

[wintertime]

$450/month in taxes or the government takes your home.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

That's a $450 **RENT** bill from your landlord, the government! Hey!,,,,and Silly you thought you "owned" the government's house.

[wintertime]

Remember, please, that a good hefty chunk of property taxes goes to support government mis-education.

[69ConvertibleFirebird]

Exactly. People who think that they own their land... don't pay the bill that the government sends you each year and see if you still "own" it next year.

[jonesboheim]

There's two separate issues here - actual market value (which has nothing to do with property taxes) and the arbitrary value the Appraisal District places on your home. Just because your house has been appraised at FMV doesn't mean your taxes haven't just been jacked up. Go back through your old property tax paperwork and look for the trend.

Sorry for the misunderstanding - when I said "property value," I meant "assessed value" which is obviously different. If, like me, you're taking a bath on property taxes because the real estate market is crap in your area, you have at least a little consolation. File a protest with the ARB with comps (assessed value not market value - VERY IMPORTANT) or some other evidence and they'll decrease your assessed value which will decrease your property taxes.

[wgflyer]

Yes, we desperately need another H.J. here, and I think we're approaching a trip point on property tax, much like California did back then. It can't come soon enough for me!

Victimization by government comes in many flavors, though....and in that light, California's government has a lot in common with Baskin Robbins.

[Howard Jarvis Admirer]

Expect the taxaholics to say that the children will not have toilet paper or school books or pencils if a Texas Prop 13 passes, they told those tales out here when Prop 13 passed and it didn't happen. Why should Texas homeowners be taxed to death to pay for the hordes of illegals exploiting their public schools and hospitals?

[wgflyer]

" Why should Texas homeowners be taxed to death to pay for the hordes of illegals exploiting their public schools and hospitals?"

Preaching to the choir, my friend. We're about at a breaking point. I'm ready to sell my home at a loss to a welfare minority who has 13 kids and is protected by the ACLU just to lower the whole neighborhood's resale value and deprive the city (not to mention the HOA NAZI's) their money. My financial loss would be more than compensated for by the sheer cost to local government and subsequent happiness that would give me.