When appraised value goes up and local officials tell you they didn’t raise the tax “rate” but kept it the same, you still were given a tax increase – by them. It is not a higher appraisal that increased your property tax, it is local officials setting a new tax rate that brings in more money than the year before.
Each year for each local taxing entity, the tax rate for the next fiscal year must be reset completely. To do that, because that taxing base, the cumulative taxing value of property changes after new annual appraisal work, a new base tax percentage is figured and officials use that, the revenue neutral Effective Rate, as the guide as to what a new tax rate will have to be to bring in more or less revenue, meaning a tax increase or decrease to you.
Because many are so easily fooled and because so many officials use this confusion to mislead voters, you need to impress upon your legislators now that we need House Bill 2 and Senate Bill 2 passed with very few changes.
Because most people simply do not understand how the math on this works, local officials get away with, even to reporters and opinion writers who should know better, making people think their property taxes went up because of appraised value increases when, in reality, those local officials set a new tax rate that brings in more money from the same taxpayers than the previous year’s rate had done – they passed a tax increase.
Because many are so easily fooled and because so many officials use this confusion to mislead voters, you need to impress upon your legislators now that we need House Bill 2 and Senate Bill 2 passed with very few changes.
Passing the bills won’t suddenly enlighten the stupid but will make it much harder for local officials to mislead and will give voters a chance to veto larger local property tax increases.
Why you need to push legislators to pass HB2 and SB2 now
Each year for each local taxing entity, the tax rate for the next fiscal year must be reset completely. To do that, because that taxing base, the cumulative taxing value of property changes after new annual appraisal work, a new base tax percentage is figured and officials use that, the revenue neutral Effective Rate, as the guide as to what a new tax rate will have to be to bring in more or less revenue, meaning a tax increase or decrease to you.
Because many are so easily fooled and because so many officials use this confusion to mislead voters, you need to impress upon your legislators now that we need House Bill 2 and Senate Bill 2 passed with very few changes.
Because most people simply do not understand how the math on this works, local officials get away with, even to reporters and opinion writers who should know better, making people think their property taxes went up because of appraised value increases when, in reality, those local officials set a new tax rate that brings in more money from the same taxpayers than the previous year’s rate had done – they passed a tax increase.
Because many are so easily fooled and because so many officials use this confusion to mislead voters, you need to impress upon your legislators now that we need House Bill 2 and Senate Bill 2 passed with very few changes.
Passing the bills won’t suddenly enlighten the stupid but will make it much harder for local officials to mislead and will give voters a chance to veto larger local property tax increases.