Perry did that in 1988 when Perry was a Democrat. He switched to Republican in 1989, perhaps after realizing Republicans were where power was going to be in Texas in the future. We've benefited in the past from ex-Democrats like Reagan or even Phil Gramm.
He claims to have held down taxes and reformed the property tax but I’d like him to explain why when we bought our house, the taxes equaled two weeks of our take home pay but for the last few years we’ve struggled with property taxes equalling two MONTHS of our take home pay.
If your income was constant you are talking about a roughly four-fold increase in your property tax. Over what period of years was this? Did you have less income for the last few years than you had before? Did you make major improvements to your property or did the appraisal district discover major improvements that hadn't been disclosed before? Or did you buy a more expensive house in the interim and now struggle to pay the property tax on the new house?
The appraisal on my Texas house went up more than 10 percent in 2010, but the actual tax increase was limited by law to 10 percent a year. Fortunately, for 2011 the appraisal went down and my taxes will go down again. I had pointed out flaws in calculating the appraised value of my house to appraiser staff.
You might be interested in the following 2007 statement from Perry following the 2006 reduction in property tax increases. See: More Property Tax Reform Needed in Texas:
In order to give Texans a say before raising property taxes, we need additional appraisal reform. Otherwise the recent property cuts carved out in the 2006 special session will be eaten away in the next few years because of rising property values.
To have true, lasting property tax relief for property owners in Texas both sides of the tax equation must be addressed. Your tax bill is a product of two factors, the tax rate and the taxable value (determined by appraisal). The massive property tax reform legislation that passed in 2006 was sweeping in scope yet still only tackled half the property tax equation, the tax-rate side, and left future legislatures with the responsibility to address the other half of the formula, appraisals. Last year, a task force I created recommended ways to soften the effects of rising property values through appraisal reform, but the legislature chose to not make significant changes to the appraisal system.
Rounding up and fuzzy math makes it a fraction over 10% every year (except that one, big woo) and that small fraction adds up. Same job, no major improvements, and within price range as mortgage paid off within 5 years. With the fair market values climbing here, there’s no end in sight to our tax increases. Great if I wanted an investment property but this was supposed to be our last home. So, bring on the housing crisis!