There is a political story so big in Texas from 2019 that it directly and indirectly affects every Texas resident and will affect them even more so for years to come.
It is a story far more important than political scandals such as House Speaker Dennis Bonnen’s spin off the political track; a story more important to our future together than any crime story, and; a story which was decades in the making and yet will get moderate to minimal positive coverage in the general Texas press as much out of ignorance as any bias.
Rep. Dustin Burrows (HD83)
The story is that the Texas Legislature, facing powerful well-funded bitter opposition, under the leadership of Senator Paul Bettencourt of Houston and Representative Dustin Burrows of Lubbock, passed the first meaningful reform to the Texas local property tax system since the 1970’s.
New rules will not stop the lying of local officials but such rules, which take effect over the next year, will make it much more difficult for officials to hide local tax increases behind intentionally misleading language.
Senator Paul Bettencourt (SD7)
And more importantly, our legislators significantly boosted the concept of “local control” by giving us voters and taxpayers more direct control over runaway local government property tax increases. Any aggregate property tax increase beyond 3.5 percent will now require voter approval.
Burrows, Bettencourt and many others deserve great accolades for finally pushing this pro-taxpayer reform past the goal line.
Fundamentally it is the most far-reaching political story of 2019 in Texas.
I am thankful for property tax reform. A few of us, in Scurry County just had a successful rollback petition and now in January Scurry County will have a rollback election. Thank you Mr. Burrows for serving Scurry County.