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12.01.2004
FRED HILL SAYS HE OPPOSES PROPERTY TAX APPRAISAL CAPS
Local Ways and Means Chair could hinder Perry's agenda
By Harvey Kronberg – www.quorumreport.com
Rep. Fred Hill (R-Richardson) says opposition is building to Gov. Rick
Perry's proposal for appraisal caps, and he includes himself among the
opposition.
Hill, who chairs the Local Government Ways and Means committee, was Perry's
point man for the appraisal cap issue last session, trying to be the
go-between the Governor and the local jurisdictions that were up in arms
over the proposal. After some serious discussion with all involved, Hill
says he can no longer support appraisal caps.
"Local taxing entities need to be able to do their jobs. It's bad public
policy for the state to micromanage local government," says Hill, a one-time
member of the Richardson school board. "Where the pressure needs to be
applied is locally, with people coming to the Commissioners' Court and City
Council to let them know how they feel about these things. That's where
people need to be applying the pressure."
Counties, in particular, were strongly opposed to the appraisal caps because
of the artificial constraints it would put on county budgets. Those
constraints, Hill says, force the jurisdiction to use property taxes to pay
for mandated core services such as law enforcement and indigent health care
and turn to fees to pay for peripheral services such as libraries and parks.
That does nothing but put the cost on local government, Hill says.
"At some point, we have got to remember these are elected officials," Hill
said. "We give them the responsibility to do their job then we try to
micromanage them by setting an artificially low appraisal cap. All it does
is force cities and counties to look for another source of revenue."
While filing bills for appraisal caps was popular during the last regular
session, Hill says he sees a growing opposition to appraisal caps in both
the House and the Senate. The more lawmakers understand about appraisal
caps, the less they support them, he said.
In the meantime, Perry's office insists the governor is still committed to
raising and passing the appraisal cap issue in the upcoming session.
"The Governor remains a strong supporter of capping appraisals and believes
that appraisal caps will certainly go a long way toward ending appraisal
creep in the state of Texas," Spokesman Robert Black said this afternoon.
Appraisal caps were a popular rallying point last session. Houston radio
station owner Dan Patrick, in particular, packed hundreds on buses to come
down to the Capitol and protest their steep increases in local property
taxes. Many were retirees living on a fixed income who told lawmakers they
could no longer afford to pay their property tax bills.
Hill says he does have sympathy for those homeowners. The demographics in
Hill's own district in Richardson lean heavily toward older residents. Hill
estimates 76 percent of his constituents no longer have children in school,
which makes it harder for them to justify paying growing tax bills each
year.
Hill says the proposed overhaul of the school finance system - which could
produce a 50-cent cut in local property taxes - to be the first, and best,
step in addressing higher property taxes. Given that school district
property taxes are 60 percent of property taxes on most homes, that should
put a significant dent in most tax bills, Hill said.
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