If Judge Emmett's tax rate cut was "token," what do you call Mayor White's?
After Commissioners Court approved Judge Emmett's requested one-cent property tax rate reduction, some called it a "token" cut.
What then should we call Mayor White's 1/8-cent rate reduction? Microscopic?
The point is, any reduction is better than no reduction, or an increase. One could argue in the city of Houston's case that a larger cut was in order due to the windfall tax revenues that the city has been receiving, on top of all the new revenue streams the mayor has put in place.
If reducing the tax rate becomes a trend for local governments, that's a good thing. If governments can slow the rate at which they rake in the cash, that's a better thing, especially considering governments don't earn money -- they confiscate it from hard-working taxpayers. If the state will do its part and pass real appraisal reform, that would be the best thing.
In the meantime, a "token" rate cut will have to do. It's certainly more than Harris County has done in years past, and it's a bigger rate cut than Mayor White offered up.
KEVIN WHITED ADDS: A recent comment by Neal Meyer resonated with me on this topic:
The other day, [the Chronicle] reported that cutting the 64 cent per $100 property valuation by a penny would result in $25 million in lost revenues to the county. As usual, the media then stated that a tax cut of that kind of result in paltry savings to property owners.
One of the things that irritates me about this kind of reporting is that defenders of government often use these kinds of statements to imply that tax rates should not be cut. After all, what's $12 right? What they don't say is that all it takes is for your assets to go up and you get whacked, nor do they think that if every time a $12 tax cut is enacted, then over time the savings returns to taxpayers begin to add up. Instead what we get over time is government creep instead of government rollback.
This is a key observation, because one does tend to see reporting and commentary that downplay the impact of property tax cuts based on what the reduction would save against the last tax assessment (versus what it would save against, say, the average appraisal-creep increase most homeowners face each year).
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 10/28/07 12:48 PM | Houston Miscellany | Print | Comments (1)
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