Posted 2/11/2005 05:31:00 PM by Douglas

The eternal struggle of people complaining about their taxes. The people are fed up and can't pay any more at the same time the government says they can't get by with one penny less. What I find interesting in this story is that they're not fighting about how high they are, but rather how much they can raise them every year.

City and county officials from across Texas told state lawmakers Thursday that a low cap on property tax appraisals would devastate local services, but cap supporters said appraisal increases are a "stealth" tax on homeowners.

The House Ways and Means Committee was not considering any specific legislation during its hearing, but Gov. Rick Perry has asked the Legislature to adopt a 3 percent a year cap on the taxable value of a homeowner's appraisal increase. The state currently has a 10 percent cap.

Slow down, 'cause I think I missed something. What the hell is going on with city and county spending that a 3% a year cap on property tax increases would devastate local services? It's pretty obvious cities and counties go through money pretty inefficiently, but how would limiting the increase be so horrible?

When an entity has the ability to take your money and/or throw you in jail, they're never going to have enough. But it's good to know there's a genius like Bob Day on the case. Run the numbers for me, Bob:

Day said it would take the taxes from four homes valued at $100,000 to make up for the loss revenues on a single home valued at $400,000.

Hold on, lemme get my calculator out.

Yep, his story checks out.

Moron.