Local Property Tax Caps Are a Hypocritical Smokescreen for State's Failure to Fix Its School Finance System

Austin has no shame when it comes to passing the buck on school finance and property taxes.Gov. Greg Abbott is insisting that state lawmakers impose limits on city and county rates of property tax revenue increases. Abbott contends that a state-imposed cap on local property tax revenue is needed to prevent Texas from becoming a high-tax state like California. So what happened to practicing what you preach? The two-year state budget that lawmakers passed in May - and that the governor signed - is balanced on the assumption that state property tax revenues will increase 7.04 percent for the 2017 tax year and 6.77 percent in the 2018 tax year. Both figures are higher than the 5 percent annual property tax revenue cap that Senate lawmakers sought to impose on cities and counties during the same legislative session.  Continue reading...