Rain Tax assessments on their way to property owners (updated)
Have you gotten your Rebuild Houston "rain tax" assessment yet?
They're starting to go out, so watch your snail mail. Or, go to the Rebuild Houston website and pull up your info.
My estimated monthly tax (let's call it what it is) is $9.77 (so much for the campaign promises of "about $5/month").
The estimates seem to be based on Google satellite imagery that was never designed for the purpose. In my case, large roof overhangs, shadows from trees, and shrubs all managed to get assessed as impervious surface for tax purposes (and a small portion of driveway was left out), which means I will have to take time to do a little measuring this weekend, pull up some property sketches I have, and submit materials to city bureaucrats for a correction. And hope all goes well.
My prediction from looking over the imagery just in my neighborhood is that if homeowners are paying any attention at all, the city is going to be inundated with correction requests.
Feel free to discuss your own Parker/Costello Rain Tax assessments in the comments. At some point, I'll post my assessed versus actual impervious surface figures there.
RELATED (05/12/2011): At Mayor Annise Parker's house, drainage tax higher than Renew Houston backers advertised. Is your tax higher, too? (Steve Miller, Texas Watchdog), Drainage Fee: A Tale of 2 Properties (Ned Hibberd, KRIV-26 News).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/10/11 09:01 PM | Print |
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