About property taxes, Claire Kowalick at the Wichita Falls Times Record News reported: “Mayor Stephen Santellana said costs of goods and inflation do not remain the same so adopting a rate to bring in the same amount as the previous year is not “holding the line” but rather losing ground.”
Sadly, the Wichita Falls mayor is engaged in purposely misleading citizens with that statement. I know the new term for the Effective Tax Rate is No New Revenue Rate but that is misleading because it doesn’t mean no new revenue to the taxing entity, the local government, it means no new revenue derived from the body of property that was taxed in the previous year.
I was right when I feared calling the Effective Rate the No New Revenue Rate would give dishonest local officials just another way to mislead people and justify raising property taxes.
No matter what you call the Effective Tax Rate, it means a rate, in aggregate, that does not pull in more revenue than the year before from existing taxpayers. It is not calculated to include property that had major improvements or new development. And on top of that, adopting the Effective Rate does not have anything to do with other tax and fee revenue streams.
I was right when I feared calling the Effective Rate the No New Revenue Rate would give dishonest local officials just another way to mislead people and justify raising property taxes. The Wichita Falls mayor demonstrates that point exactly.
And even if you think inflation justifies locals raising taxes ask this: Why do they get an automatic increase in income when, in raising taxes, they are actually making you have less money to live on the next year?
So many sheep in Wichita Falls. They keep voting Santanella into office snd he is committed to making the Falls into Austin. He is continually proposing bond issue after bond issue. He is determined to sink this city. Are there any intelligent politicians in this county?