Free Republic

Oops! Listen closely - You can hear her earpiece... picked up on the LiveStream. Who is REALLY in charge here?? Who is feeding her lines at the podium??

TEXAS CITY — The way Loretta Bigford sees it, her efforts to force a rollback election of Texas City’s recently adopted tax rate will amount to a belated Christmas present for residents — and maybe at the same time put some coal into the stockings of city commissioners. The Texas City resident is among a handful of folks who launched a petition drive last week after city commissioners unanimously approved a tax rate, which, while not different from last year’s rate, was high enough to make it vulnerable to an election forcing a decrease. The group has until about Christmas...

Homeowners expecting to save $2,000 on their school property taxes should brace for a bit of sticker shock. According to figures from the county’s tax assessor, the best the average homeowner in the county can expect in savings thanks to the recently passed school tax relief laws is $544 during the next three years. “I think it is a bit disingenuous to tell people they will be saving $2,000,” said Cheryl Johnson, the Galveston County Tax Assessor-Collector. “We will definitely pay less because of the new law, but I don’t want people to be deceived about saving $2,000.” The $2,000...

Galveston County Democratic Party Chairman Lloyd Criss issued a news release this week saying he had asked for a list of voters whose addresses have been called into question. “One of the primary reasons I have requested the list of suspended voters is because I want to know if the preponderance of those suspended reside in Democratic precincts,” he wrote. Tax Assessor-Collector Cheryl Johnson, whose office is responsible voter registration, said she’d be glad to provide the list to anyone who asked, but she said she was offended by the implication that she might play politics with the voter rolls....

A June 2004 meeting between Friendswood school officials and the chief appraiser of the Galveston County Central Appraisal District was to keep the school district from losing state funding because under-appraised homes in six Friendswood subdivisions, said FISD superintendent Trish Hanks. The meeting has become fodder for Houston talk radio station KSEV and its Lone Star Times web site, with allegations that the district tried to bring unwarranted influence to bear on the appraisal district to boost property values and therefore permit a "stealth" tax increase. In the arcane process of property appraisal for tax purposes, Hanks said the state...

GALVESTON — County leaders on Monday backed legislative proposals to curb property appraisal increases, but added a condition of their own. County Judge Jim Yarbrough proposed an amendment to ask state lawmakers to stop handing down unfunded mandates if they’re going to hinder the county’s ability to raise revenue. Several bills before the Legislature would lower the cap on homestead appraisals from 10 percent to 3 percent or 5 percent. Commissioner Ken Clark, the sole Republican on the commissioners court, proposed the resolution. It calls for support of a 3 percent cap on homestead appraisals. The cities of Bayou Vista,...

FRIENDSWOOD — A group had a pep-rally of sorts at a Friendswood pizza parlor Tuesday to encourage support for Gov. Rick Perry’s proposal to limit increases in taxable property values to no more than 3 percent annually. The group released what it said were numbers showing government officials do not pay their fare share when it comes to property taxes. Edd Hendee, a radio talk show host and executive director of Citizens Lowering Our Unfair Taxes, released figures indicating that the property values of Friendswood Mayor Kimball Brizendine, City Manager Ron Cox, council members such as Mel Measels and Laura...

State lawmakers this year are considering several proposals to lower the cap on property appraisal increases, and local officials have begun to take sides. Many others will be asked to do so by County Tax-Assessor Collector Cheryl Johnson. She asked city leaders of Friendswood, Galveston and the county commissioners court to endorse a proposal to lower the cap on homestead appraisal increases from 10 percent to 3 percent a year. What that would mean is the owner of a $100,000 home would see no more than a $3,000 increase in a single year, as compared to up to a $10,000...