Special Event!
with coffee & donuts!!
SATURDAY MAY 13 • 10 am to Noon
How to Reduce Your Property Tax Bill!
Protesting Appraisals & Rates
CHRIS IS BACK TO HELP US OUT!!
When Chris Woolsey’s property taxes went up substantially on his new home in Corsicana, he decided to be part of the solution and got himself elected in 2019 (and re-elected) to the Corsicana city council. One month after Chris came to speak to us in July 2022, Chris helped deliver a genuine property-tax cut to Corsicana with a rate below the “no-new-revenue rate.”
With even more experience under his belt, Chris asked to come back and bring more ammo to us taxpayers here in Cooke County. We are more than happy to host him again here in Gainesville on Saturday morning, May 13, 10 to Noon. He will again explain the no-new-revenue rate and much more. Our own Chief Appraiser Doug Smithson will also be in attendance, as he was last July. Yes, he wants everyone to come hear Chris! [And then, come hear Doug, Monday evening, May 15 at 7 pm.]
Broken property-tax system?
In commercial real estate, Chris is a regular writer for Texas Scorecard, a speaker for True Texas Project, a fierce fighter for Texas taxpayers, and quite the expert on local government and what he describes as “the broken property tax system.” Because of Texas law dating back to 1979, the property tax system is intentionally broken: it allows local governments to continuously shift blame for rising property taxes.
This broken system was designed to give local governments cover to continue collecting higher property taxes while always having a way to shirk accountability to taxpayers. (Chris Woolsey)
Chris will educate us about protesting tax appraisals AND the setting of TAX RATES and the No-New-Revenue Rate.
“One common myth is that the State of Texas collects property taxes.”
This is a quote from Chris’s latest article on property taxes in Texas Scorecard, April 12, 2023. Did you realize that all property taxes are local? Want to eliminate property taxes and quit paying rent every year to local government entities and local school boards on property you are supposed to own? (And never will actually own, as long as they can tax you and take your property for back taxes!) It’s not a state issue. It’s all right here in Cooke County!
What most people don’t know is that every local taxing entity is free to set the property tax rate to $0.00—every local government could abolish property taxes, like the City of Stafford, Texas, has done. (Chris Woolsey)
Texas Scorecard wrote about Stafford back in February 2019.
Stafford, a Fort Bend County city of about 20,000, eliminated its property taxes more than 20 years ago under long-serving Mayor Leonard Scarcella. …the city’s innovative approach to fiscal management has led to a notable increase in cash resources and has saved residents and businesses thousands of dollars in taxes each year.” Stafford is the largest Texas city to abolish property taxes on commercial and residential property. As a comparison, the neighboring city of Sugar Land levied a 45.7 cent property tax on every $100 of valuation at the time Stafford abolished theirs.
Contrary to what is often claimed by local officials, the city isn’t losing out on new business, debt hasn’t added up, and public services are fully functioning. …So while other cities fight to oppose property tax reform in the legislature, Stafford residents need only fight their county and school district to follow suit and put taxpayers first.
This past year, our Cooke County Commissioners and County Judge Starnes actually voted for a no-new-revenue rate, which kept county taxes from going up. And, in our last election, we voted against school bonds which would have raised our taxes and burdened us taxpayers (and future taxpayers) with millions of dollars in long-term debt.
But our state Legislature keeps giving us “historic tax reform”?? Property tax cuts??
That’s what they always claim. Have your taxes actually gone down? According to Texans for Fiscal Responsibility (TFR),
…(from 2021 to 2022) statewide school district tax revenues rose an astounding 13.74%, special purpose district revenues rose 9.43%, county revenues rose 12.66%, and city revenues rose 9.14%. The total property tax revenue for the state of Texas rose to a historic 12.17%. This is the highest rise in property taxes since 2001, when property tax revenues rose by 12.4%. For nearly two decades, the Texas Legislature has promised property tax relief and reform, and for two decades, Texans’ property tax bills have continued to climb higher and higher.
Why aren’t they applying the $32.6 Billion surplus to cut property taxes across the state? Ask our Legislature and our Governor, etc. Julie McCarty of True Texas Project says we’ll be lucky to get 1/3 back. That’s probably optimistic.
Meanwhile, according to Huffines Liberty Foundation and TFR, Texas homeowners’ property taxes are the 6th highest in the nation!! Business property owners rank 9th. And our “conservative” Legislature is voting itself pension increases and bringing back corporate (and school board) welfare (topics for another article).
Local elections are the key to abolishing property taxes
In his latest article (see above), Chris points out the crucial importance of LOCAL ELECTIONS.
School districts typically take the largest piece of your tax pie, often accounting for 40-50 percent or more of your tax bill (which is why school board races are so important). City, county, and school taxes and bonds (a softer way of saying “increased tax burden”) have the most direct impact on your everyday life as well as your pocketbook, yet elections for these critical positions are largely skipped by the very people they impact.
Both the Huffines Liberty Foundation and TFR have solutions. Here in Cooke County (and across the state), we need brave and honest leaders, taxpayers, and parents to step up with innovative thinking for how we educate our children. We pay more and more for less and less, and now we’re even fighting pornography and Marxist race theory (yes, right here in Cooke County schools). Come to meetings. Bring your ideas. We need county-wide conversations!
Click HERE for an eye-opening interview with Chris by Scorecard. Scroll down to the audio bar and forward to 11 minutes in for the interview. You will learn some things! (And you won’t be happy.) For a Scorecard article featuring Tim Hardin of Texans for Fiscal Responsibility as well as Chris Woolsey, click HERE.
Back in 2019, Chris exposed how taxpayer-funded (that’s our money) lobbyists urge our cities to “shake the money tree.” Click HERE. We can ask Chris if anything at all has changed in the past 4 years.