Local officials lie when they blame property tax increases on anything but the tax rate they set each summer

There is much more to say on local government officials, like county judges, commissioners, mayors, and city council members, trotting out their gimmick of a freeze on appraised values to prevent local tax increases this summer.

House Ways and Means Committee chairman, Rep. Dustin Burrows of Lubbock, answered Dallas County Judge Jenkins call for an appraised values freeze in order to avoid a tax increase with this on Twitter:

“Judge, you realize that if you want to provide county property tax relief for the citizens of your county, you and the commissioners are the ONLY ones who can do that. All you have to do is to decide to take in less revenue.”

Other lawmakers chimed in with more. Rep. Cole Hefner wrote: “Stop trying to shift the responsibility to someone else. Simply lower the rate and take in less revenue resulting in relief for taxpayers.” And state Senator Kelly Hancock wrote that Judge Jenkins “knows. It’s just easier when you can blame someone else.”

Jenkins in Dallas likely does know but we learned, disturbingly, last year that a Lubbock County commissioner who had been voting to set a new tax rate each summer for a decade and a half clearly did not understand even the basics of how the simple math works. He claimed voting for the revenue neutral Effective Tax Rate, or no-new-revenue rate, was actually a tax increase.

There are some truly thick-headed know-nothings in public office, even at high positions but most of these folk do know that property taxes only go up or down due to the new tax rate they adopt each summer.

All the misleading statements they make are simply to fool you and incorrectly blame others for the tax increases they vote for.