Posted on 06/06/2014 12:30:01 AM PDT by Impala64ssa
On a recent evening, more than 300 homeowners who are worried about their rising property tax bills filled First Unitarian Universalist Church in North Austin for a town hall meeting. If something doesn’t change, many said, they will soon be priced out of their homes. Two nights later, a similar discussion played out in South Austin, where homeowners gathered at Grace United Methodist Church in Travis Heights to talk about what can be done to slow escalating residential tax values.
“I’m at the breaking point,” said Gretchen Gardner, an Austin artist who bought a 1930s bungalow in the Bouldin neighborhood just south of downtown in 1991 and has watched her property tax bill soar to $8,500 this year.
“It’s not because I don’t like paying taxes,” said Gardner, who attended both meetings. “I have voted for every park, every library, all the school improvements, for light rail, for anything that will make this city better. But now I can’t afford to live here anymore. I’ll protest my appraisal notice, but that’s not enough. Someone needs to step in and address the big picture.”
The arrival of this year’s appraisal notices — which in Travis County showed homes’ average market values jumped 12.6 percent and average taxable values rose 8 percent for 2014 — is sparking a push for reform. Similar jumps have occurred in Williamson and Hays counties.
(Excerpt) Read more at mystatesman.com ...
Liberals by definition have a mental disorder. . Cognitive dissonance is the primary symptom: “Why can’t I have bigger government and lower taxes!?” Thank God they can’t point to a single government program that has worked. Can you imagine the lipsmacking enthusiam if they could? “See? Gubmint can work!” My son doesn’t like big government, but he’s convinced that anthropomorphic warming is real. The problem is obvious. You must have big government to force/administer a climate master plan.
Woman who voted for every Austin, TX tax increase discovers that now she can’t afford to live there
I wonder if she was there, or if she was "down the well" with Timmy.
Guess the suburban Marxists don’t like it when Commissar Lenin sends the bill to THEM.
Gretchen could make that statement 10,000 times over and not catch what instantly jumps out at all of us. It’s a peek into the quintessential liberal mind. And it’s enough to make one run screaming into the night.
Guess what Gretchen; I don’t like to pay taxes. Not one bit!
And I don’t like people like you that have never seen a proposal for a park they didn’t think was Great!
Guess what Gretchen; Parks don’t pay taxes. Every new government park, building and light rail line takes property off of the government tax rolls. That means you and I have to pay more just to keep the government revenues constant.
Another little tid bit you should know Gretchen is that every time the government opens a new park that means that there is another park the government has to maintain. That maintenance cost money.
So remember next time you see a proposal on the ballot for some new city improvement; that new improvement is just the tip of the camel’s nose, there will be more cost to follow and some tax payer (you) will have to pay for keeping it up.
Problem that in Texas, lower-cost and moderate homes are taxed at about 100% of MV. High dollar homes are assessed at about 50%. Same with commercial land and apartment complexes. Commercial buildings at about 1/3. Reason is that Texas is a non-disclosure state. High-dollar sellers routinely offer homes off MLS, same with land and commercial buildings, so very little actual data for the county appraisers.
System is ready for another lawsuit.
Zillow estimates Gardner’s 1-BR, 1-Bath, 1,008 square foot home built in 1934 on a 16,552 square foot lot is worth $525,000, or $520 per square foot!!! The median list price home in 78704 is $539,000.
Home prices dropped in the Bouldin neighborhood in 2011 from $385,000 to about $310,000, then they climbed back up to $385,000 level in 2012, and now are hovering around $415,000. Gentrification is the apparent reason for the upward price trend because the housing stock is old.
Gardner can sell her home and relocate and reap a windfall and she is appealing her tax assessment????
“I have voted for every park”.....
The core of the problem.
They seem to think that they can vote for all the social wonderful things & never have to contribute to paying for such.
Austin is a VERY Liberal place.
Payback is a bitch.
That article is mostly the quote from the first paragraph of this article you know.
Not true for areas surrounding houston and probably most of the rest of the state.. taxes are well posted and available on line as are appraisals. This seems like a flimsy excuse that does not hold water. We are being priced out of our home by property taxes that they raise by 10% every year and we have to protest every year to try to tamp down the increases. Appraisals and sale prices are readily available.
The income taxless situation replaced by property and sales taxes makes it unaffordable to live in texas without regular income that keeps up with inflation. Lose your job and stand to lose your paid for home, simple as that.
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