Texas Cities Are Worried Republicans Pushed Tax Cuts Too Far

[daredtowork]

This is fascinating:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-03-04/texas-tax-cut-plan-riles-cities-dealing-with-growth-muni-credit

While Texas is struggling to hold the ideological line against "California-izing", I wonder if the cities are eyeing the Minnesota surplus with envy...

[Wellstone ruled]

1. Try this on for size.

At some point your Taxing Authority hit the wall when their levying ability reaches 100% and they are not able to collect Taxes because the ability to pay goes away. Texas has to be getting close to this,Real Estate Taxes are just plain Stupid,the wage base sucks,and just how in the hell can they maintain this. Something has to give and it is not going to be pretty when it goes south.

[ieoeja]

3. Property taxes are why so many lost everything in the Great Depression.

Most people did not carry debt. But they still had to pay their property tax. And most states relied primarily on property taxes. This proved to be a problem for both the people and the states. The people lost their homes. While the states' revenue stream dried up.

So states shifted to an income tax. This, of course, worked perfectly well, even in the Great Depression, because it meant the state was now collecting money from people who were making money and therefore able to actually pay the tax.

I will never, never, never, ever understand rank-and-file Conservative opposition to taxing people on their ability to actually pay the fucking tax. How is that not a slam dunk?

I get the rich fucker who wants to bankrupt people by relying on property tax. He can then pick up the property for pennies on the dollar. He may be evil. But he at least makes sense. But the rank-and-file? "I think we should tax property instead of income. Cause if I lose my job and can no longer afford the property tax, well, it's just my own darn fault, ain't it?"

Is the entire Conservative movement composed of masochists led by sadists?

[Wellstone ruled]

4. And the the creep affect is

so pervasive. If you have the so called Media in your corner,bingo,you have a winner. Hear in Nevada we do not have a Income Tax,so every thing is either Property Tax or Sales Tax and some Mining and Casino taxes. In saying that,the Media is already brain washing the populace as to small increases in Property Taxes is so necessary to build a couple of Stadiums,hire more Police,and by the way,the Mining Companies as well as the Casino's need a break. Bullshit,Adelson and Wynn are sucking the County dry. The land that the Casino's set on does not pay Taxes and is not subject to City of Las Vegas Taxing. It's called Las Vegas Township which prevents the City from Real Estate Tax's. It is called Tax Exempt and the Buildings along the Strip are on leased land.

[daredtowork]

5. An interesting point was how

the property tax was going up to the State but not coming back down to the local level.

I suppose all the big corporations that moved there (from California) are practically tax-exempt, too. That's what attracted them, after all. That, and the lack of labor protections.

[Matariki]

2. “It scares the fool out of me”

That should be the new Republican motto. But I suppose that's wishful thinking.

[daredtowork]

8. lol XD nt

[sendero]

6. I live in TX...

..... if the major gist of this law is to cap property tax increases at 4% per annum, I don't see how that is unreasonable. The only exception I could see would be if inflation in wages and construction (main expenditures of cities) took off and obviously if you have 8% inflation in those costs a 4% cap would be unworkable. Perhaps the cap should be indexed. Also, the law provides for allowing the residents of the city vote on whether or not to enforce the cap. Again, seems not that absurd.

Cities that are growing fast and need to build infrastructure will have to issue bonds. Or manage their growth in some way. Neither seems like a deal killer to me.

Compared to some of the idiocy in our state's gov't, this seems relatively tame to me.

[daredtowork]

7. How will the cities pay the bonds?

The article seems to indicate cities are sinking into debt as the property taxes go to the State, and not enough gets sent back to the cities.

Which city do you live in?