Perry's Tax Cuts Are Disappearing

It looks like the last special session of the Texas Legislature may have been for nothing. We already knew they had failed to help the schools as they promised, but at least, it looked like they had made a significant reduction in property taxes. Now it looks like that may not be true either.

In the special session, property taxes were cut by one-third, and new business and cigarette taxes were approved. However, even Perry admits that the one-third cut in taxes is disappearing, and may actually be non-existent by the time it takes effect. There was a loophole in the law - appraisals. Since local entities can't raise the tax rate, they are simply adjusting appraisals upward. Raising appraisals does the same thing as raising the tax rate - it produces more tax money. It now looks like the rising appraisals may eat up all of the tax cut.

Perry does not know how to solve the problem, so he's created a "blue-ribbon" panel to hold hearings and try to find a solution. Most of Perry's opponents in the governor's race are as clueless as he is. Grandma doesn't want the state to do anything - she says the problem should be solved at the local level [even though the local level IS the problem]. Bell is against capping appraisals, but doesn't say how he would solve the problem.

It seems that only one of Perry's opponents has a viable solution - Kinky Friedman. Kinky wants to put a 3% cap on appraisals.

If some kind of cap on appraisals is not instituted, the tax breaks will soon disappear. That would mean the only thing the special session accomplished was to raise taxes [on businesses and cigarettes]. That's a sad legacy for a session called to cut taxes.