BCC June Meeting – Property Taxes

Friends of Bastrop County Conservatives,

What a great meeting! The room was full.

After our invocation and pledge, we were proud to honor a number of our area city council members, most all recently elected, or promoted.

Bastrop

Mayor – Lyle Nelson

City Council – Kevin Plunkett

City Council – John Kirkland (Mayor Pro Tem)

Elgin

City Council – Forest Dennis

City Council – Chuck Swain

Smithville

City Council – Tom Etheredge (Mayor Pro Tem)

City Council – Mitch Jameson

City Council – Jimmy Jenkins

The pictures in the above graphic represent the members who were able to attend the meeting and shared a few words. Three others were not in the area and, in one case, not in the country 😊. We value them all.

We honored them for their selfless sacrifice, taking time away from their jobs and families to represent the people of their cities. While our group supports these individuals, these are the people in front, putting their names on the line, spending their money to get elected, taking the chances. It is tough to run for office, win or lose. If you see them, please let them know you appreciate their service.

Several of these newly elected politicians thanked BCC for whatever assistance we were able to provide in their elections. That assistance came from up to thirty plus people, depending on how we could help. The chair of our Candidate Support Committee, Donald Barron, organized section leads in his group that REALLY performed. These were Richard Martin, Cathy Martinez, Adam Bushong and Dawn Thompson. Each of these team leaders worked with people in their groups who absolutely delivered on their roles and responsibilities. These leaders, and everyone who worked with them, are making a difference. A sincere thank you goes to all of them for what they were able to accomplish this election cycle.

Also attending were:

Stan Gerdes, Texas House of Representatives, District 17
Tom Glass, Lee County Conservatives Chair
Curtis Courtney, Bastrop County Republican Party Chair
Kylie Cunningham, Bastrop County Young Republicans Chair

Each shared a few words with us with Stan giving us a brief legislative update and the organization chairs announcing their upcoming meetings.

Our speakers were Ellen Owens and James Quintero. They provided us excellent commentary on the current state of property taxes followed with a Q&A session. Summaries of their main thoughts follow:

Ellen Owens

43 bills passed that directly affect the property tax system – 6 vetoed
2 constitutional amendments November 7, 2023 ballot, 1 Bio Medical Manufacturing facilities and 1 child-care facilities
Tax rate calculations and proposed tax rate updated regularly on Bastrop.CountyTaxRates.com
HB 3297 that eliminates yearly safety inspection requirement goes into effect 1-1-2025
HB 718 that eliminates paper license plates goes into effect 7-1-2025
Contact info:
Ellen Owens, Tax Assessor/Collector

James Quentero

Texas’ strong economy has positioned the state’s finances well. The Legislature is preparing to provide $18 billion in tax relief; it has $10 billion in unencumbered general revenue; and its rainy day fund is projected to reach $22 billion by the end of fiscal year 2025.
On Tuesday, the Texas Senate unanimously passed Senate Bill 26 and Senate Joint Resolution 2 which propose to do the following:
“Provides a total of $12.7 billion for ISD tax rate reduction and lowering the [collection limit rate], which benefits all Texas property tax payers.”
Increases the homestead exemption from $40,000 to $100,000;
Lowers the voter-approval tax rate limit from 2.5% to 1.75%; and
Exempts small businesses with $2.47 million in annual revenue or less from paying franchise taxes.
Also on Tuesday, the Texas House announced the creation of the Select Study Committee on Sustainable Property Tax Relief whose goals include:
Evaluating the dynamic effects of tax rate compression, limits on taxable value, and homestead exemption increases to maximize savings to property owners;
Studying the viability and sustainability of eliminating maintenance and operations taxes by 2035;
Examining historical rates of appraisal increase and recommending methods to reduce the tax burden of appraisal increase on all real property; and
Examining the long-term value of homestead exemptions to Texas homeowners in conjunction with the impact of appraisal increases.
Some of the Texas Public Policy Foundation’s property tax research may be found below.
Eliminating School District Maintenance and Operations Property Taxes, January 2023
Ten Ways to Protect Property Tax Relief in 2023, February 2023
Property Tax Relief: Which Way Forward?, February 2023
Tax reform is equally important as tax relief. That is why the Foundation is asking policymakers to consider a series of reforms that can be found in the attachment labeled: GftP Transparency, Accountability, & Sustainability
Certain Bastrop-area governments are showing signs of excess. Consider:
From 2018 to 2022, Bastrop County’s population and inflation increased 39.2% whereas its property tax revenues may have grown by more than 87%.
From 2018 to 2022, Bastrop ISD’s enrollment and inflation increased just 26.6% whereas its property tax revenues grew by 72.5%.
To better align ideal and actual revenue growth, local governments officials should consider employing third-party efficiency audits, implementing zero-based budgeting, adopting the no-new-revenue tax rate, and examining other techniques to ease the burden of government.
Contact info:
James Quentero, Texas Public Policy Foundation, Policy Director
JQuintero@TexasPolicy.com

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