HOW TO PROTEST APPRAISALS & RATES!
• SPECIAL EVENTS •
BASH 1 • THURSDAY, MAY 19, 7 PM on APPRAISALS
BASH 2 • SATURDAY, JULY 16, 11 AM on RATES
The Property Tax Two-Step!
You Asked ~ We Are Delivering the Experts!
County appraisal districts across the state have lost their collective minds, and now property owners are losing theirs. It seems that taxing entities are not wasting the opportunity that skyrocketing house and land prices and inflation, etc., are providing to raise taxes like crazy. It’s been climbing for several years, and people are literally being taxed out of their homes.
Tarrant County realtor and appraisal expert, Chandler Crouch, says that people call his office daily, crying, because they are losing their home and property due to high taxes. You may have paid cash for your property. You may have paid off your mortgage. But you still rent from the government! Private property is biblical and Constitutional. Property taxes are immoral and unconstitutional. This past March, Republican primary voters said “Eliminate property taxes.” That will be our fight with the Legislature next year and the grassroots is gearing up for it. Meanwhile,…. help is coming to plug the dike now.
THURSDAY, MAY 19 • 7 PM (Doors open 6:30)
Chandler Crouch on How to Protest Your Appraisal!
115 people came to hear Chandler. Now it’s time to hear Chris Woolsey explain how to protest our RATES.
SATURDAY, JULY 16 • 11 am to 1 pm
At the Fold of Grand Avenue Church in Gainesville (see Venue tab)
A one-year anniversary celebration for Cooke Conservatives with FREE LUNCH & CAKE!
PLUS….
Chris Woolsey on How to Protest Rates for No New Revenue!
Chris Woolsey Represents the Caliber of Elected Official We Want to Support
Chris is in commercial real estate. When he moved to Corsicana, Texas, he bought a house. His property taxes went up 30%, so, in 2019, he got himself elected the youngest city councilman in Corsicana. He is now in his second term. In October 2019, Texas Scorecard Radio interviewed Chris. Marvel at these excerpts:
Our duty, our job [as an elected official] is to prioritize the taxpayer, using their money in the most efficient and sparse way possible. [Imagine a politician being “sparse” and efficient with your money!] We should also be defining the proper role of government. The reason government exists is to protect the rights of citizens from infringement. My first duty is insuring public safety. Making sure we have police officers, firefighters, ambulances. Without those things, there’s not a whole lot of use for a city. We need to make sure there is water getting to every house, pipes that are not going to break and cause more money to be spent on repairs, make sure that water’s clean. Also fixing roads. For this one dollar from a taxpayer, what is the most efficient way to use that dollar to get the best possible public safety, the best water, the best roads for our taxpayers. I was recruited to political activism back in 2008 [in college] by Barack Obama [minor chuckle]. He is the one who caused me to become a conservative activist. The city council and local politics has the most effect on your daily life. I wanted to see a community where I could live for the next 50 years, where my parents could retire, where hopefully I’ll have kids who grow up in this community, and I wanted it to be the best it could be. The property tax system is one of the things that motivated me the most. The property tax system in Texas as a whole, I think, is broken. It’s more complicated than it needs to be, there is no clear responsibility for who’s raising these tax dollars that come out of your pocket. The terminology is very vague and misleading sometimes. The system is set up not allowing taxpayers to really know what’s going on. Texas taxpayers are paying rent to the government just to live in their property. [Life, Liberty, Property ~ no one should ever be taxed out of their HOME! You should truly own it.] Earlier this summer (2019), I went to the Texas Municipal League’s newly elected official orientation. When I got there, I realized it was not something I agreed with. One of the initial presentations was titled Shaking the Money Tree, all the different avenues to get more money out of taxpayers. The appalling thing to me, was, over the course of the orientation as a whole, they kind of guided you how to disguise this property tax increase and tell taxpayers you didn’t raise their rate but collect more money in your pocket. This organization gets taxpayer dollars to teach newly elected officials to get more money and also lobby the Legislature to prevent property tax reform. It’s very telling that the president of TML just declared as a Democrat for Congress. Taxpayer-funded lobbying is a huge issue. We need lobbying reform. The best thing for local officials to do is block walk when they are not up for reelection. Our number-one goal is to listen to our own taxpayers.”
Fran Waters Rhodes, President of True Texas Project on RATES
IT IS NOT THE APPRAISED VALUE THAT DRIVES YOUR PROPERTY TAX BILL, IT’S THE SPENDING OF THE TAXING ENTITIES WHO SET THE RATES!
1) Appraisal Districts (AD) do their thing and send you their statement
2) You protest or accept the AD value
3) Once protests are concluded, the AD sends the total valuation of properties for their jurisdiction to each taxing entity (city, school, county, hospital, special district) The AD also calculates the “NO NEW REVENUE RATE” for each taxing entity. This is the rate at which taxes paid and revenue received would remain mostly the same as previous year.
4) Taxing entities now know exactly how much taxable value exists in their jurisdiction. They start working on budgets, and proposed tax rates [and they always want MORE of our $$]
5) The taxing entity proposes a tax rate. If the proposed rate is more than the No New Revenue rate, they are required to hold at least one public hearing
6) Taxing entities hold public hearings on the proposed tax rate and almost NO ONE SHOWS UP!!!!
7) After public hearings, taxing entity adopts the rate that no one protested, and taxes go up.
The problem starts with adopting a budget. All too often, a taxing entity will formulate a budget, then do the math to find the tax rate on the known value that will give them the revenue number they want. It should work the other way round. They know that the No New Revenue rate will bring them $XX in revenue, they should build a budget around that number. Or (can you even imagine it) a lower number!
Over the next couple of months taxing entities will be working on budgets for next year. They usually hold work sessions about budgets that the public can attend. Once they propose a budget – they have to hold public hearings on the budget, but again, hardly anyone ever shows up to protest the budget.
Hardly anyone ever shows up at the tax rate hearing either.
If your taxing entities adopt a rate that is above the No New Revenue Rate, they are raising your taxes. They will try to tell you that they have lowered your taxes because they lowered the rate from previous year. THAT’S A LIE!
*You should still protest your appraisal if you think it is out of line. Show up at municipal elections to elect good people who will stop the spending madness. Show up, stand up and speak up to the taxing entities when they are spending too much. Of course, the ultimate solutions is for the Legislature to take action to eliminate property taxes, but some of us might not live that long. In the mean time, be a good citizen advocate, and advocate for lower spending, which equates to lower taxes.
We also recommend the podcast of longtime Republican activist, Robert Pratt
https://prattontexas.com/category/commentary/property-tax/ Texans Are Astoundingly Ignorant About Property Taxes
“Each year I find myself having to explain to Texans that in general, across a taxing district, average higher property value appraisals do not raise your property taxes; that is done solely by local government officials when they set a new property tax rate for their upcoming budget year.” ~ Pratt On Texas