Harris County Democratic Commissioners Have Tax And Spending Disease

Elections have consequences. So in the last election, Harris County voters voted straight Democrat in historic numbers, because they thought "Beto" O'Rourke (and his $100 million) was the second coming and they were not big fans of Senator Ted Cruz or President Trump and the GOP campaigns weren't as effective as they needed to be.

So we elected Lina Hidalgo, a novice candidate for County Judge over well-regarded Judge Ed Emmett and perennial candidate Adrian Garcia over Commissioner Jack Morman in a close race. Under the leadership of a career leftist politician, Rodney Ellis (put on Commissioners Court by essentially the Democratic precinct chairs), the county has embraced the tax and spending ways of D.C.

So taxpayers, hold on to your wallets because as described by the taxpayers' watchdog, Senator Paul Bettencourt, here's what is coming:

"During the recent Harris County Commissioner Court meeting, the commissioners proposed a massive double digit property tax rate increase. This is a 'Maximum Smash' on Taxpayers the last year before Senate Bill 2 takes effect in 2020, reducing the rollback rate from 8% to 3.5%."

"For the average home with a taxable value of $179,660, the homeowner will see an estimated 12.6% tax increase.

"The key point is that such an onerous tax increase next year would require commissioner's court to take it to the voters for ratification in November. It is bad enough public policy that they can have a double digit increase in 2019, but SB2 will stop these preposterous increases in 2020 and leave it up to the voters to decide in a November election, as opposed to them being 'Taxed To The Max' on a 3-2 vote.

"Average homeowners in Harris County are not getting a 12% pay raise and they shouldn't be paying a 12% tax hike either."

Note this happens while appraisals creep up and more property goes on the tax rolls, and massive toll road revenue has increased county coffers by over $200 million with a year-to-year assessed valuation growth of 7.73%!

The massive tax increase falls significantly on homeowners throughout Harris County regardless of political party or race. We wonder if Commissioners Ellis and Garcia have heard from their constituents about this 12% average tax hike and gotten their outrage back.