(Texas Scorecard) – Harris County officials are taking advantage of a loophole in state law that allows them to exceed the 3.5 percent state-imposed property tax cap without voter approval. Instead, they have approved an 8 percent increase.
Under state law, since the county has had a disaster declaration, it is permitted to exceed the state’s cap this year, up to 8 percent, without voter approval. Separately, voters will get the chance to decide on another tax increase at the Harris County Flood Control District.
“They want to go through with an 8 percent increase in your taxes, which is $268 million more dollars than we had this year,” the lone Republican on County Commissioners Court, Tom Ramsey, said. “Let me put that another way. We were able to fund all of our programs this year, take care of all of our business this year, do everything we need to do this year, but we need another $268 million?”
This comes on the heels of a $2.5 billion hospital district bond last year, a City of Houston $650 million non-voter-approved bond for firefighter back pay this year, and just ahead of Houston ISD’s $4.4 billion school bond ask.
The county also proposed a Flood Control District’s tax rate this year of 0.0489 percent, which is above their cap of 0.03316 percent so it triggers a voter approval election.
Ramsey told Community Impact News, “The reason I can bring this unashamedly to the voters of Harris County is that it is for a specific purpose. It is for the maintenance of our flood control. We’ve got 22 watersheds [and] over 2,500 miles of infrastructure that we have to maintain. So I am very strongly in support of this.”
Inflation trackers show Texas households are spending more than $12,500 more today than in 2021 to maintain the same standard of living but despite that, the burden of government spending keeps growing.
Harris County taxpayers should exercise caution when considering the proposed $4.4 billion Houston ISD bond and the voter-approved tax increase for the flood control district.
