Monday, April 28, 2008

Property tax system in Texas

I have asked an individual to weigh in on how the property tax system is set up in Texas. Look for the upcoming post.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

and if you are concernd about that, then you need to be righting to your state rep. not on here saying false things that hurt our children.

Anonymous said...

Great article in the dallas paper too today. Seems like business complain when school taxes are down or up. Its funny that those business didnt pay last year and now that they have to pay this year they are mad. If you dont do the right thing it will come back to get you. Its their only falt. They should have not tryed to find the loopholes and get out of paying last year. Sounds familiar!!!

Thomas Jefferson said...

The property tax system in Texas is not complex just arbitrary at times. The tax rate is to be set based upon the total appraised value of the property located in the central appraisal district. All property is required to be appraised at 100% of value. This is the arbitrary part for different individuals have different ideas about what sets value. When appraising property there are three methods. Any single are combination of methods can be used.

Tax rates are set by individual taxing entities. In Camp County you have the County, City, College and School. Each will set their tax rates by a majority vote of the board, court, council, etc.

In theory the higher the appraised values increase the taxing entities should reduce the tax rates. State law prevents tax entities from achieving a certain percentage of income without voter approval. This provision is called the Roll Back provision under the law. Counties and Cities are subject to an approximate 7% roll back provision. They cannot take in more than approximate 7% more income than taken collected in the previous year. Schools have a different roll back provision that was established with the new school finance package. If the taxing entity wants to bust the roll back provision then they must submit it to the voters for approval. All this is strictly in regards to Operations and Maintenance Tax Rates.

Interest and Sinking Tax rates are completely seperate. I & S tax rates are put in place to reduce debt. Once approved these rates do not change until the debt or bond is paid off are the bond is retired. It is possible for the debt/bond to be refinanced with a new bond being issued and at the same time the old bond will be retired. In the case of the upcoming school bond issue the tax rate will be 43 cents if there is no state participation. If the state participates the rate could be lower. When a governmental agency is planning it does all its planning based on the worse case possibility. In regards to the school bond the worse case is 43 cents per 100 valuation at this point. This would put the school district's overall tax rate at the current rate of $1.04 + .07 (current debt service) + .43 (new debt service) = $1.54 per $100 valuation. In the case of the school I am unaware when the current 7 cent debt service is due for retirement/payoff.

In regards to appraisals/valuations as they increase so does the total amount of property taxes out of pocket. The only way this would not be the case is if the taxing entity reduced the current tax rate in relation to the increase in appraisals/valuations. This was suppose to be the checks and balances in the system. However, most taxing entities know what the Roll Back rate is and most often the tax rate is not lowered.

Property taxes for schools are a little more complex due to the Robin Hood provisions of the statues. Thus the reason for the Property Value Study that is conducted by the Comptroller's office each year on behalf of the Texas Education Agency. This animal has been playing havoc on property owners all across the state for the past couple of years. Many understand the need and importance of the value study, but agree that some changes are needed to make the system more relevant today.

txnotax said...

I wonder if bdawn is a graduate of that great educational institution, the Pittsburg ISD? In three posts I see three spelling or grammatical erros. I hope she is not a teacher! lol

"righting" when the word should be writing;

"falt" when it should be fault; and

"tryed" when the word is tried.

But we should all still love and respect her, despite her writings on the blog and the fact that her left-wing thinking is faulty. At least she has tried.