Watchdog: Many Texas Cities and Counties Lobbying Hard Against Bill Seeking Property Tax Change

To all city and county officials and your paid lobbyists who are blanketing state lawmakers with anti-property tax reform complaints: You ought to be ashamed. The Watchdog is calling you out.You're acting piggish in your protest of Senate Bill 2, the big property tax reform measure. You look greedy. You don't want to be accountable to your taxpayers.Many governments are using precious taxpayer dollars to hire expensive, influential lobbyists to push against your own voters' best interests.You say you want local control for your town and county budgets, and you want state lawmakers to butt out of your business. In truth, you actually fear your own voters butting into your business which is really our business, not yours. It's so obvious.SB 2 would require local governments to hold tax approval elections (called rollbacks) on the big Election Day in November — not, like now, hidden on obscure election dates.These higher-turnout elections would come automatically anytime a government wants to raise taxes 4 percent or more in a year. Now it's 8 percent, and a petition is required. With SB 2, no petition needed.  Continue reading...