https://houstonlanding.org/this-years-d ... 25-budget/
The tax rate cannot go up with out a vote of the people in the area. The revenue the municipality gets goes up every year due to inflation and increases in property values. If the property values go up too much, then the tax rate has to actually go down. This has been hard for spend all you can local governments, who have had to actually lower the percentage they can tax. No more windfalls when property values go up 20% a year.
Guess what, there is a loop hole.
Harris County (Houston) had three declared natural disasters this year.
The loophole is triggered. The County can and apparently plans to raise the tax rate by 8% without an election.
So yeah, as Houstonians struggle with repairs and clean up. The County plans to raise their taxes.
Property taxes in Texas and Declared Natural Disasters
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srothstein
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Re: Property taxes in Texas and Declared Natural Disasters
Two very minor corrections:
1. The city may raise the tax rate by 3.5% without an election. This is also based on the calculated effective tax rate. That is the rate that will produce the same levy as last year for properties that were appraised in both years for that taxing unit. The effective rate can be higher or lower than the previous actual tax rate, so the increase could be more than 3.5% without an election. Special districts can raise their taxes by up to 8% instead of 3.5%.
2, The law is not just if there is a natural disaster. At least one person in the taxing unit must have requested and received an exemption for damages caused by the disaster. You can only get the exemption if your property was damaged to lose at least 15% of the market value as determined by the appraisal district. While this is normally going to mean there was a disaster, there is little chance of damage that results in an exemption when the disaster was called for excessive heat or something similar. Also, if the disaster was declared for potential problems that did not occur (like some of the eclipse disaster declarations) it would not count for the exemption.
I do not know what Houston is planning for its tax rate, but you might be able to fight it by checking the disasters very carefully for damage exemption. As soon as Harris CAD gets their EARS file submitted to my office, I can check if they reported any loss for Houston for the disaster damage exemption.
1. The city may raise the tax rate by 3.5% without an election. This is also based on the calculated effective tax rate. That is the rate that will produce the same levy as last year for properties that were appraised in both years for that taxing unit. The effective rate can be higher or lower than the previous actual tax rate, so the increase could be more than 3.5% without an election. Special districts can raise their taxes by up to 8% instead of 3.5%.
2, The law is not just if there is a natural disaster. At least one person in the taxing unit must have requested and received an exemption for damages caused by the disaster. You can only get the exemption if your property was damaged to lose at least 15% of the market value as determined by the appraisal district. While this is normally going to mean there was a disaster, there is little chance of damage that results in an exemption when the disaster was called for excessive heat or something similar. Also, if the disaster was declared for potential problems that did not occur (like some of the eclipse disaster declarations) it would not count for the exemption.
I do not know what Houston is planning for its tax rate, but you might be able to fight it by checking the disasters very carefully for damage exemption. As soon as Harris CAD gets their EARS file submitted to my office, I can check if they reported any loss for Houston for the disaster damage exemption.
Steve Rothstein