37. Special Edition: Lower Taxes, Better Texas -- Eliminating Property Taxes
In this special edition of the newsletter, I highlight my latest TPPF report on a bold proposal to eliminate nearly half of the property tax burden in Texas.
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In this special edition of the newsletter, I want to provide you with an overview and resources of my latest co-authored research on improving the tax system in Texas by eliminating nearly half the property tax burden. We provide two options in our “Lower Taxes, Better Texas” proposal with the keys of moving more toward a better tax system based on sales taxes and limiting government spending, which is the true burden of government.
Here is a San Antonio news segment with my interview providing information on the problem of rapidly rising property taxes in Texas and our options on how to solve it.
The burden of property taxes is on the mind of many Texans as they get their appraisals and an estimate of their rising property tax bill. Here is what we found in our recent poll on how Texans feel about property taxes, which they want a lower property tax bill now.
There are real stories of how property taxes are pushing people out of their homes, keeping others, especially those with low or fixed income, from purchasing a home, and raising rent for too many Texans, which I included in this commentary.
Local property taxes have been growing faster than the average taxpayer’s ability to pay for them, which places an undue burden on Texans and stifles economic growth. Elevated and rising property taxes limit Texans’ opportunities to save, invest, and leave a legacy for future generations. They also pose an obstacle to prospective homebuyers on the front-end and threaten to tax existing homeowners out of their properties on the back-end. These problems are, of course, rooted in excessive local government spending which continues to skyrocket largely uninhibited, keeping Texans from reaching their full potential. It is time for bold action to cut property tax bills and unleash prosperity. Read about this and more in our press release.
The hunger for a new direction goes beyond property rights. Local property taxes have been growing faster than the average taxpayer’s ability to pay for them, which places an undue burden on Texans and stifles the growth of the economy. Elevated and rising property taxes limit Texans’ opportunities to save, invest, and leave a legacy for future generations. They also pose an obstacle to prospective homebuyers on the front end and threaten to tax existing homeowners out of their properties on the back end. These problems are, of course, rooted in excessive local government spending, which continues to skyrocket largely uninhibited, keeping Texans from reaching their full potential.
It is time for bold action. Read the full paper:
Option #1 to eliminate school district M&O property taxes is the redesign option which would eliminate them immediately and then buy down with state surplus dollars sales or business margins taxes thereafter along with putting a tax and expenditure limit on other local governments as the state did with SB 1336 this session. This option could be accomplished with something like HB 80 in the first called 2021 special session in Texas, though it wouldn’t do it explicitly until the following 2023 session when another bill would need to pass. Read the one-pager on the details of this option here:
The average effects of the redesign option on Texas families look like the following across Texas, with families receiving more than $1,000 in net savings along with a lower effective tax rate.
Option #2 to eliminate school district M&O property taxes is the buydown option that limits spending to population growth and inflation and uses any surplus funds to buy down those property taxes until they’re eliminated. This option could be achieved mostly by HB 122 in the first called 2021 special session and there was also HB 2074 during the 87th Legislature’s regular session. Here is a one-pager on this option:
Given this bold proposal and the opportunity Texas has to unleash economic prosperity and the chance to own more of a home, the time is now to get this done. Here is more information on property taxes and our two options of how you can either buy down state taxes after immediately ending school M&O property taxes in Option #1 or buy down school M&O property taxes over time in Option #2.
I’m hopeful that when the Democrats who stopped working for their constituents return from D.C. that there will be momentum to lower property tax bills using TPPF’s bold approach. In order for increased liberty and prosperity in Texas, this is an essential step forward. Thank you for reading this special edition of the Let People Prosper newsletter and sharing it with your network. Many blessings to you and yours.
Vance Ginn, Ph.D. | www.vanceginn.com | #LetPeopleProsper