Travis County Property Taxes Going Up

Unwelcome news in the Travis county budget - a large property tax increase is coming our way:

http://www.statesman.com/news/local/travis-county-preliminary-budget-proposal-unveiled-826932.html.

Travis county will hit property owners with a 10% tax rate increase (from 42 cents to 46.5 cents) to increase tax revenue 4.5% overall amid declining appraisals. They are doing this to pay for a 6.6% increase in county spending. In prior years, they struck us with appraisal creep and let the 'good times roll' in their budgets; now with appraisals sinking, they raise our tax rates and STILL increase spending. Either way, taxes and spending go up, and Travis county taxpayers will be forced to tighten their belts to pay for our profligate Travis County government.

Throwing the burdens on the taxpayers and failing to rein in spending is the wrong approach.

When a local government increases property tax rates this much, taxpayers can have a final say via a petition and rollback election. I support taxpayer rollback elections, so taxpayers can fight back against steep tax increases like this one. Obama Democrat Strama voted against the taxpayers, by voting to restrict citizen-initiated property tax rollback elections (80th Session, 2007: HB 2087 by Rep. Hill.)