Property Tax Bites
by The Panda Man · 10/25/2006 4:46 pmStill think rising property taxes are just a Houston/Harris County problem?
Filed Under Uncategorized ·
Comments
23 Responses to “Property Tax Bites”Search
Our Sponsors
Poll
Loading ...LST Book Club
-
Defending Identity: Its Indispensable Role in Protecting Democracy
by Natan Sharansky -
Fear No Evil
by Natan Sharansky -
The Case For Democracy: The Power of Freedom to Overcome Tyranny and Terror
by Anatoly Shcharansky -
The Jewish State: The Struggle for Israel's Soul
by Yoram Hazony -
Bobos in Paradise: The New Upper Class and How They Got There
by David Brooks -
Snobbery: The American Version
by Joseph Epstein -
A Conflict of Visions: Idealogical Origins of Political Struggles
by Thomas Sowell
If the stock market craters, and I think it will, It really is logical to think that what goes up must come down , of course. But if there is a major correction and I think there will be, then where does this leave the cities that have invested heavily in the stock market? If they lose what they have invested in the stock market, then perhaps we should think about just exactly what will happen then. If we think taxes are bad now, these cities, will be going broke and looking for ways out of their financial delimmas. Guess who will be on the hook for the shortfall? Oh I think the land owners are the first ones that show up on the local government radars for purposes of tax collections. Is it not time to sharpen your plow shares into swords?
If the stock market craters, and I think it will, It really is logical to think that what goes up must come down , of course. But if there is a major correction and I think there will be, then where does this leave the cities that have invested heavily in the stock market? If they lose what they have invested in the stock market, then perhaps we should think about just exactly what will happen then. If we think taxes are bad now, these cities, will be going broke and looking for ways out of their financial delimmas. Guess who will be on the hook for the shortfall? Oh I think the land owners are the first ones that show up on the local government radars for purposes of tax collections. Is it not time to sharpen your plow shares into swords?
(Little block quote thingie)
Bettencourt won’t send tax notices until November, but on average, a Harris County resident who owns a home in the Houston school district will be paying about $169 more this year.
Whoo Hoo! I live in Montgomery County and mine only went up $154!!! Sweeeet! Pssst…haven’t gotten my tax bill yet, but I did go online to look at it…My value didn’t go up either….sigh
Lucky you, Southern! My appraisal went up12% this year(Ok, they can only tax me on a 10% increase, but the rest of the increase is lurking out there to be applied in any future year in which they raise it less than 10%).
I note that both candidates for Friendswood school board are much more fortunate: Burris has had no change in his appraisal for 3 years, and Fields (who lives in my neighborhood) has no net change since 2003, and a 12.8% increase since 2000 (mine went up that much in just 1 year - why does his go up more slowly if we’re in the same neighborhood?)
Makes me feel like shaking my head!!!
#01 Leo
One assumes that cities which have invested heavily in the Stock Mkt will take the profit BEFORE the market corrects, which it will ,
most assuredly.
These entities are not long time buy and hold investors. They take profits when they see some to be had.
Your fear, therefore, though understandable but unwarranted.
We had a rental property that appraised 3x higher than the previous year. Not 3% more. The appraised value times three. It’s not homesteaded, so it’s not capped.
People who rent need to realize that they are not off the hook for property taxes. They are built into their rent. Guess who’s gonna have to raise rents to pay for this increase? I hope the market will take it, else we’ll have to sell the units for a loss rather than take a yearly loss that will suck our bank account dry. The tenants are gonna take it in the wallet or have to move.
#6 tedtam,
Although not homesteaded, appraised value shouldn’t go up higher than market value. Did your market value go up 3x or was your taxable value that low to begin with?
# 06
Property tax is going out of control . To make matter worst bills start coming when Xmas is approaching fast. If they are not paid by the end of January penalty starts to add up.
I have decided to start putting away every month all related taxes starting next year to see if it helps.
Good luck to me!
Rahman Goldigger
#7
As a good liberal, you should be praising higher property taxes and higher appraisals as that will bring more money to the tax and spend coffers. What, did it hit you in the pocket? That wasn’t supposed to happen! How could those tax and spend liberals hit YOU, instead of the “rich” conservatives? “Putting away” for taxes is the conservative thing to do, doncha know? Hyprocracy at its best!
I used to have a couple of old houses in Garden Oaks that I was renting out. I finally sold them. It was just not feasible anymore to have rent houses. The property tax is just a scam for the good old boys at the city to reach into your wallet and steal your money and if you don’t like it and don’t pay them, they will come out and take your property and there is not one damn thing you can do about it. Most of the property tax is for schools. Yet the schools get worse and worse and children are not taught anything of importance. But, the taxes keep going up. The bureaucrats plan on that ten percent bump every two years they have programmed into the tax rate. You can believe that. It is time for a propostion 13 in Texas. Howard Jarvis, please come back to life and move to Texas for a while.
Leo
#9
Hear, Hear! What you said in very few sentences is absolutely clear to me and most taxpayers. We need relief of any sort, whether by proposition or otherwise.
We don’t have any legislators who believe in tax relief even if they claim to. They are all after the almighty dollar for their own greed and power and want to solve all the problems by spending for every little ache and pain for everyone because they are so insecure. It is not reality because you can’t please everyone except the lobbyists maybe. Our governments are so corrupt and it will never end unless we take some drastic action against this same old foolishness every year. Politics as usual.
Vlou
#11
Very, very well said! And very, very correct!
We lease 1,100 sq feet of space in an office building on Richmond. It is our showroom, to the trade only, no retail, no cash register, no walk-ins, by appt only. We received a property tax notice for $141,000 in value and almost $4,300.00 a year in taxes…on a space we rent. We called, and they told us it is for 4,000 sq ft at that address, and yes, its valid even if we do not own it…etc..etc. Now we have to take time off work to go down and protest this. Its basically office space. How nuts is that?
GO KINKY!
#13 - Office space is still real property. And if it’s commercial, it should specify in your lease whether you are responsible for cutting the check or the landlord. You will, of course be paying for it either way. That’s the big secret with property taxes - I keep hearing on the radio about homeowners getting their property appraisals capped, but nothing about the renters. They pay the taxes, too, just like all business expenses get passed on to the end consumers. (Ahem, this includes the infamous business tax!) I’ve tried to make this point before, but nobody seems to hear me. I am a landlord, but I hate to raise rents on my tenants just to please the gov’t. ALL appraisals should be controlled, and the gov’t should be controlling its spending!
#15 Let me clarify:
And if it’s commercial, it should specify in your lease whether you OR THE LANDLORD are responsible for cutting the check.
re: 11
Well since Dan is going to Austin, I am sure he is well aware of what he is up against. Any new member of the Texas house , number 1, has no power and no committee assigments. In order to get anywhere he has to ‘work’ his way into it by one method or another. It is the system and that is the way things are done. If Dan has any ideas about going to Austin and if he actually thinks for one minute they are going to sit still while he does something great for the people, well, he has another thing coming and I am sure he is politically aware enough to know this. I am not sure what he can do really. They system is broken and cannot be repaired. It is out of control and there is nothing we can do about it. Once the system has taken the power, it will not ever relinguish that power unless we take it from them. Which brings me to this example. If you remember, what happened in Spain a few years ago when the Spanish wanted their men home from Iraq. Millions of Spaniards took to the streets and demanded the government listen to them and address their grievances. And guess what? This peaceful action toppled the government and their troops were home in a couple of weeks. So, this is the only way to stop them from doing what they are doing. We must take to the streets just like the Spaniards did. But , we Americans are way too self absorbed to do this, imho. I cannot think it would happen here, but I wish it would. It would be a marvelous thing to see in America. If only we would do this, the things that could be accomplished. But alas we shall not do this. We shall continue blogging from the confort of our homes and when we are hungry we shall go to Krogers to get our food and when we want to , we can turn on our big HD flat screens and watch tv…Yes,…..and the truth is we really , secretly , like being slaves. It frees us so we can get involved in all the things we think are important in our little lives. Oh we bitch and we complain, but deep down inside….we have been bred to be slaves and we have been brainwashed by the boob toob to be exactly what we are now. It took 50 years but it has been accomplished. So let us continue bitching about taxes and when we are finished bitching, we can go to sleep and dream the American dream…….and when we wake up , we can go to work at our crappy jobs and make some money for the state and keep thinking we are a free people with rights…..
Leo, you have certainly provided the fuel for my nightmares this evening!
tedtam…LOL…it’s time for bed and before I have my nightmare, I am going to go and get my bedtime snack…a root beer float with homemade ice cream! Sweet dreams to all - count those tax dollars flying out of your checkbook!
what is the state going to do when all the seniors die and those reverse mortgages come due - the government will own the houses and not be able to sell them.
the seniors cannot afford thses taxes on real estate in this state.
Well, for all those who say it can’t get worse under Democrats, remember this: As Dan Patrick has pointed out, with Chris Bell as governor, forget about your appraisal caps. He would veto any such bill, and there are not sufficient votes to override.
Now if the legislature gets a tax bill through, Bell will sign it in a heartbeat.
tedtam..thanks for the great info. We went down today (Friday) to set up an appt to get a hearing. The reason we went down personally was because we could not figure out how to fill out the form for our special situatuion. Long story short, they were SUPER nice, gave us a hearing on the spot, and got it settled right away. They said Fridays are their slowest day…something good to know. Finally, a painless tax protest story!! I KNOW the Lord was looking out for us.