Wichita Falls bond debt proposal requires 20% tax increase

Pratt on Texas - copyright Pratt on Texas all rights reservedEarly voting in the local May 5th elections ends tomorrow, Tuesday, May 1st with Election Day being on Saturday.

In a story about Governor Abbott’s appearance in Wichita Falls, KFDX reported:

“If all propositions for the Wichita Falls bond pass, property taxes would rise more than 20 percent.”… “If voters approve all propositions on the Wichita Falls bond ballot, the property tax rate in Wichita Falls will be the second highest in the entire state of Texas. Second only to Galveston, of cities that have over a billion dollars in taxable value, according to 2016 data from the Texas Comptroller’s Office.”

Wow! A guaranteed twenty percent tax increase just to pay debt service. Then you have to add on to that the regular property tax increases the city passes when it adopts annual tax rates above the revenue neutral Effective Rate.

No wonder state Representative James Frank said in the same story: “I am certainly not in favor of all of them [the bond propositions] because I’m concerned about having a tax rate too high…”

Vote for what you think you need but do remember that bond debt issues are not free money.

KFDX reported that Representative Frank says he plans to vote no to propositions A and D. Prop. A is “circle trail” work as well as lake parking lots and turf for softball fields. Prop. D is the $77 million city government complex.

Vote for what you think you need but do remember that bond debt issues are not free money. Such require tax increases, in this case a whopping twenty percent, to pay off and those payments get made before any money goes to essential services such as police, fire, streets, and the like.

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Comments

  1. John Beck says

    Lubbock is next

  2. I have a real problem with raising assessments and property taxes, its kind of like reaching in someone else’s pockets to pay for your stuff. Consider this, your making it harder for elderly people to stay in the home they worked to pay for and you make it harder for young couples to afford the housing they need. Who else do you want to get rid of?

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