Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins called for a property tax cut at his annual State of the County address Wednesday.
"We're in a hot housing market. Unemployment is way down but wages are up, and that's all good news. But wages aren't up 10 percent, and we don't need the middle class seeing a 10-percent tax increase," said Jenkins.
Jenkins said the middle class saw the biggest tax rate increase.
"So we need to look at working together with all the taxing entities – all of the cities, and the various taxing entities – to bring meaningful property tax relief," Jenkins said. "So what I'm proposing is that we capture the amount of money that was budgeted for but not this windfall of this unexpected increase in property value. That way, we can fund all the services for the people who needed services and give money back to the middle-class families that need that because they didn't get a 10-percent pay increase last year and they don't need a 10-percent tax increase."
But first the other entities need to sign on in Dallas County.
"Well I think it can be a hard sell with some people, but every mayor and city council person I've talked to – and that's just the ones I've run into – have either said that they're open to discussing it or they favor it in principle," Jenkins added.
