Lubbock’s mayoral runoff features a candidate who uses the most common falsehood.
For at least a decade and a half, I have spent considerable time correcting the ignorance, and yes often purposeful misdirection, of elected officials and reporters on the subject of how and why local property taxes were going up.
In aggregate, across the boundaries of a particular taxing entity such as a municipality, school or hospital district, or county, property taxes do not go up because appraised values went up. Property taxes only increase, in aggregate across a taxing district, when the elected officials for that local government entity vote to set a new tax rate that is above the No New Revenue Rate, or historically the Effective Rate.
First, and I’m still flummoxed about such after all these years, it is difficult for many to understand that local property tax rates are not something similar to the federal income tax. There is no percentage tax rate that gets adjusted up or down by future governing bodies but without adjustment simply remains in place.
The starting point for local property tax rates in Texas is completely reset each year after property reappraisals are settled. Each governing body is, after the new math is done, given a percentage tax rate as a starting point that has little to do with the previous year’s “tax rate.”
The new rate is described in law as the No New Revenue Tax Rate, or Effective Tax Rate, and it is a figure that would, after annual appraised value changes, bring that taxing entity in the coming year the same amount of property tax revenue it received in the previous year from taxpayers that payed in the previous tax year. This means that new development and substantial property improvements are outside of the calculation.
When Steve Massengale, a councilman and mayoral runoff candidate in Lubbock, tries in his campaign literature to make it appear that he hasn’t voted to raise taxes, by claiming he voted to “lower the tax rate,” he is unambiguously misleading voters.
The previous year’s tax rate is not raised or lowered. Instead, a completely new rate based solely on the newly calculated No New Revenue Tax Rate is set. The next year’s tax rate is set either at, below, or above the No New Revenue Rate – it has nothing to do with the previous year’s tax rate.
The previous year’s tax rate is not raised or lowered. Instead, a completely new rate based solely on the newly calculated No New Revenue Tax Rate is set. The next year’s tax rate is set either at, below, or above the No New Revenue Rate – it has nothing to do with the previous year’s tax rate.
In fact, as Harris County and Lubbock County commissioners learned, if there is not a quorum present by the end of the legal window of time to vote to set a fresh tax rate for the coming year, the new tax automatically gets set at the newly calculated No New Revenue Tax Rate – not at the almost mythical “last year’s” tax rate. There is no such thing as raising or lowering the previous year’s property tax rate; that rate goes away and a new rate, using new numbers, is set.
For decades politicians like Lubbock’s Massengale have, due to ignorant reporters, gotten away with blaming entity-wide tax increases on appraised value increases, claiming that they didn’t raise taxes because they voted for a tax rate lower than the one of the previous year.
It is a lie and all but the most ignorant of them know it.
If appraised values across a city, for example, go up then council members can set a tax rate that appears, simply as a number, to be lower than that of the previous year’s tax rate. They then often imply that they didn’t raise taxes when they certainly did because the number they set, the percentage tax rate, was higher than the annually calculated No New Revenue Tax Rate.
The math on this is simple.
The honesty and integrity of a local government elected official is often best tested by this issue of setting an annual tax rate and how the official goes about explaining it to the public.
In the Lubbock mayoral race, candidate Mark McBrayer appeared on Pratt on Texas and made it clear that he properly and accurately understands how this works. Also, he was able to honestly and accurately point out that in his two budgets on the council he did not vote for tax increases but instead supported the No New Revenue Tax Rate. Kudos to McBrayer for both opposing tax increases and for not misleading voters about old tax rates versus the No New Revenue Tax Rate.
Just remember, any media report you see this summer and fall reporting tax rates being set by local politicians for the next year as being higher or lower than the current tax rate is likely misleading.
Just remember, any media report you see this summer and fall reporting tax rates being set by local politicians for the next year as being higher or lower than the current tax rate is likely misleading. If the report does not contain the No New Revenue Tax Rate, and whether the new rate adopted is higher (a tax increase), lower (a tax decrease), or the same as (no change), than the No New Revenue Tax Rate, the report is rubbish.
Annual Property Tax Misrepresentation Season Begins
Lubbock’s mayoral runoff features a candidate who uses the most common falsehood.
For at least a decade and a half, I have spent considerable time correcting the ignorance, and yes often purposeful misdirection, of elected officials and reporters on the subject of how and why local property taxes were going up.
In aggregate, across the boundaries of a particular taxing entity such as a municipality, school or hospital district, or county, property taxes do not go up because appraised values went up. Property taxes only increase, in aggregate across a taxing district, when the elected officials for that local government entity vote to set a new tax rate that is above the No New Revenue Rate, or historically the Effective Rate.
Massengale mailer card 2024
The Lubbock runoff for mayor once again features the most common untruth contrived by elected officials statewide to hide their tax raising behavior: One candidate says he “voted for lowering the tax rate” in his eight years on the council.
This is intentional misdirection.
First, and I’m still flummoxed about such after all these years, it is difficult for many to understand that local property tax rates are not something similar to the federal income tax. There is no percentage tax rate that gets adjusted up or down by future governing bodies but without adjustment simply remains in place.
The starting point for local property tax rates in Texas is completely reset each year after property reappraisals are settled. Each governing body is, after the new math is done, given a percentage tax rate as a starting point that has little to do with the previous year’s “tax rate.”
The new rate is described in law as the No New Revenue Tax Rate, or Effective Tax Rate, and it is a figure that would, after annual appraised value changes, bring that taxing entity in the coming year the same amount of property tax revenue it received in the previous year from taxpayers that payed in the previous tax year. This means that new development and substantial property improvements are outside of the calculation.
When Steve Massengale, a councilman and mayoral runoff candidate in Lubbock, tries in his campaign literature to make it appear that he hasn’t voted to raise taxes, by claiming he voted to “lower the tax rate,” he is unambiguously misleading voters.
The previous year’s tax rate is not raised or lowered. Instead, a completely new rate based solely on the newly calculated No New Revenue Tax Rate is set. The next year’s tax rate is set either at, below, or above the No New Revenue Rate – it has nothing to do with the previous year’s tax rate.
The previous year’s tax rate is not raised or lowered. Instead, a completely new rate based solely on the newly calculated No New Revenue Tax Rate is set. The next year’s tax rate is set either at, below, or above the No New Revenue Rate – it has nothing to do with the previous year’s tax rate.
In fact, as Harris County and Lubbock County commissioners learned, if there is not a quorum present by the end of the legal window of time to vote to set a fresh tax rate for the coming year, the new tax automatically gets set at the newly calculated No New Revenue Tax Rate – not at the almost mythical “last year’s” tax rate. There is no such thing as raising or lowering the previous year’s property tax rate; that rate goes away and a new rate, using new numbers, is set.
For decades politicians like Lubbock’s Massengale have, due to ignorant reporters, gotten away with blaming entity-wide tax increases on appraised value increases, claiming that they didn’t raise taxes because they voted for a tax rate lower than the one of the previous year.
It is a lie and all but the most ignorant of them know it.
If appraised values across a city, for example, go up then council members can set a tax rate that appears, simply as a number, to be lower than that of the previous year’s tax rate. They then often imply that they didn’t raise taxes when they certainly did because the number they set, the percentage tax rate, was higher than the annually calculated No New Revenue Tax Rate.
The math on this is simple.
The honesty and integrity of a local government elected official is often best tested by this issue of setting an annual tax rate and how the official goes about explaining it to the public.
In the Lubbock mayoral race, candidate Mark McBrayer appeared on Pratt on Texas and made it clear that he properly and accurately understands how this works. Also, he was able to honestly and accurately point out that in his two budgets on the council he did not vote for tax increases but instead supported the No New Revenue Tax Rate. Kudos to McBrayer for both opposing tax increases and for not misleading voters about old tax rates versus the No New Revenue Tax Rate.
Just remember, any media report you see this summer and fall reporting tax rates being set by local politicians for the next year as being higher or lower than the current tax rate is likely misleading.
Just remember, any media report you see this summer and fall reporting tax rates being set by local politicians for the next year as being higher or lower than the current tax rate is likely misleading. If the report does not contain the No New Revenue Tax Rate, and whether the new rate adopted is higher (a tax increase), lower (a tax decrease), or the same as (no change), than the No New Revenue Tax Rate, the report is rubbish.
See more on property taxes here.