Jan 23, 2007 6:38 pm US/Central
Task Force Considers Property Value Price Cap
by Mary Stewart
NORTH TEXAS (CBS 11 News) ―
Governor Perry's Texas Task Force on Appraisal Reform wants to limit how much your property values can go up every year.
Now, taxing authorities can raise the value of a $200,000 house by 10 percent a year. But, the task force would cap the increase to 5 percent.
"It's just sky high. It's unreal," said homeowner Louise Wray. "It's tripled in the last year." Wray and her daughter-in-law have seen their property taxes spike in recent years.
Appraised values in Dallas are up 8.4 percent a year. Across the state, they have climbed 46 percent in major Texas cities over a four year period.
That's great if you're selling your house. But it's not so great if you're paying taxes.
"I think what they're doing is, they're trying to up all the values of the homes," Jonni Wray said. "But they're not doing it in a way that reflects market value of those homes."
Trophy Club homeowner Dwight Morrow is angry. "It's just a game the tax authorities play in order to keep their revenue high," he said.
Over the past few months, the governor's task force has heard complaints at Dallas and statewide public hearings on property tax appraisals.
Task Force Chairman Tom Pauken called the property appraisal system "broken." With the release of the task force report, Pauken said replacing property tax hikes with a half-cent sales tax would net $190 million for Dallas County and $94 million for Tarrant County.
"Oh no, we don't need any more sales taxes," Louise said when she learned of the proposal. "It's enough as it is."
A local option sales tax would take a constitutional amendment, but lawmakers will have to decide if that is better than skyrocketing property taxes.
(CBS 11 News)
