One cost that real estate investors often fail to factor into their investments is the cost of their property tax bill. Texas has some of the highest property taxes in the country. Governor Abbott has signed new legislation into law, which will make it more difficult for local governments to increase property taxes without the authority of voters…
The Dallas Morning News Reports:
Oh, joy. After years of trying, state lawmakers passed a biggie. A property tax bill that fixes some major flaws in the system.
Senate Bill 2, the Texas Property Tax Reform and Transparency Act of 2019 is 153 pages long. It’s now a law, but it’s also a cliché of sorts: The law won’t lower your taxes but it will slow their growth.
That should make you half-happy.
What makes The Watchdog sad: Even if a government lowers its tax rate, rising property values through higher property appraisals will increase our tax bills anyway.
Doh.
November tax-approval elections
Bigger cities, counties and school districts that want to raise taxes will need more voter permission than in the past.
If a city or county wants to increase revenue by more than 3.5% in a year, they need approval in an election.
In the past, the cap was 8% before an election was called. So that meant governments increased their budgets by 7.99% if needed…
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