Cardinal Backer

[baddog]

I am not calling you out. I have seen you post about property taxes and was wondering how you feel about this. It sounds really good but when you take away taxed monies, you have to get it from somewhere else. In Texas, our property taxes also pay for our local school districts. So I am asking, without sarcasm, is this a good deal, and if so, where does the city/county recoup these losses? I am retired and have no kids in local schools, yet I still pay school taxes. Your thoughts?

Anyone else can respond too.

 

 

[CardinalBacker]

4 hours ago, baddog said:

I am not calling you out. I have seen you post about property taxes and was wondering how you feel about this. It sounds really good but when you take away taxed monies, you have to get it from somewhere else. In Texas, our property taxes also pay for our local school districts. So I am asking, without sarcasm, is this a good deal, and if so, where does the city/county recoup these losses? I am retired and have no kids in local schools, yet I still pay school taxes. Your thoughts?

Anyone else can respond too.

 

 

Thanks for asking. I’m opposed to doing away with property taxes for a few reasons- primarily, in regards to “how will we replace this tax revenue?” If you normally pay $3k per year in property taxes, you’d just expect to pick it up elsewhere, through sales tax or an excise (vat) tax. The only problem is that the redistribution of that burden won’t be passed down evenly. Parkdale Mall Will no longer pay property taxes, but WILL pay a higher sales tax on the lightbulbs and toilet paper that they buy. They’re going to pay way less.  
 

A guy that owns a dozen rent houses will see his property tax bill shrink dramatically. Will he pass the savings on to his tenants? Of course not. The people renting won’t see any change at all in their cost of living.  But the average Joe Homeowner who’s already having trouble making ends meet will surely see an increase in the cost of everything he buys to survive.  It’s been proven that increases in sales taxes hurt lower income people worse than wealthy people. A larger percentage of their income will be spent on taxes, while people with multiple properties see their tax liability decrease.  
 

Another HUGE problem is that money won’t be collected locally. Your sales tax dollars will be collected by an agency of the state that will then redistribute the funds as they see fit. Good luck getting those hairy-legged women in the Peoples’ Republic of Austin to send anything back our way. How well can rural counties lobby against the Harris, Bexar, Dallas, and Tarrant counties? We’ll all be sucking hind teat, if you know what I mean. 
 

The cost of education is high. Right now the average annual spending per student in Texas is almost $10k/year. Assuming you had three kids at home, could you afford to educate them at a cost of $30k per year? I sure couldn’t.  Most people who have kids in school simply can’t afford to shoulder the cost of educating them by themselves.   That’s how we ended up spreading the cost of their education among all property owners.  
 

I’m not saying that property taxes are fair, but it’s the most fair system that we’ve got. And to be frank, the voting public will vote against their own interests when instructed to. I’d be amazed if you didn’t just vote for politicians here in Texas that were in favor of giving tax dollars to rich parents to offset the cost of private education for their spoiled brats. Not necessarily you personally, but Texans as a group just sent their legislators to Austin with a mandate to make vouchers for private school for rich kids a public responsibility, while simultaneously arguing that “taxation is theft.”

 

It’s bananas.