The "tax man" speaks out
Paul Bettencourt is sounding the alarm on skyrocketing property taxes:
Tax Collector/Assessor Paul Bettencourt said, "The overall increase on the Houston home was worse than I expected."
Bettencourt says the average home in Harris County costs $3,100 a year in taxes on average. That’s up $1,600 since 1997.
Bettencourt says as home values have been going up, a lot of commercial values have been going down. Meaning overall, homeowners in Harris County are shouldering an ever greater tax burden.
The city of Houston did lower the tax rate this year, but with values up, taxes are actually higher.
"The public needs to remember that they need to be protesting their value whenever they get a case," Bettencourt stressed. "This reinforces that we need tax relief legislation out of Austin."
As Bettencourt points out, even though the city enacted a token rate decrease this year, appraisal creep has kept the total bill increasing steadily. Bettencourt favors lowering the cap on annual appraisal increases from the current 10 percent.
The Harris County Tax Office provides information on protesting assessed property values here.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/25/04 10:18 PM | Print |
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