Most Tuesday mornings, the Texas Minute—our weekday email publication—includes the One-Click Survey. It’s almost always a question about policy or politics, oftentimes tinged with a bit of humor. We ask readers to not only “click” an answer, but to then reply with their comments.
Today’s question was about the failure of the Legislature to work toward eliminating property taxes without levying new ones. This is a long-standing position of the Republican Party of Texas. It is being heavily promoted by the GOP gubernatorial campaign of Don Huffines in challenging incumbent Greg Abbott. And unassailable research by the Texas Public Policy Foundation shows how it can happen by 2033.
So, I asked who our readers blame. (As we do each week, the survey results and selected replies are included in the Wednesday edition of the Texas Minute, Oct. 20, 2021.)
One reply I received this morning drove home the real-world ongoing problems created by the Legislature’s unwillingness to take real action on the burdensome, out-of-control property tax system. The words brought tears to my eyes.
Deborah Harper wrote, “I had to sell my home because I couldn’t keep up with the property taxes. It was my dream home and I’ll never get over having to sell it. I’m a senior and don’t have any hope of ever buying another home. This is wrong!”
Wrong? She is being polite. It is immoral. It is unjust. It is sinful and tyrannical.
Deborah was forced to sell her home because she couldn’t keep up with the property taxes.
Think about that. A Texan was forced from her home because our legislators would rather feed the leviathan of big government rather than protect the people.
How many people like Deborah have been forced from their homes because Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, House Speaker Dade Phelan, and 180 members of the Texas Legislature keep deciding the property tax problem can be delayed until “another time”?
Kicking the property tax can down the road might be convenient for politicians, but is destroying the lives of real people.
Texans deserve better.
