It is no secret to Texas taxpayers that the burden of property taxes in the Lone Star State has been skyrocketing out of control. But recently the situation has caught the attention of the national media.
The Wall Street Journal’s Mansion Magazine, a publication focusing primarily on real estate across the country, posed the question to real estate tax attorneys, “Which U.S. states have had the highest property tax increases over the last five years?”
Several states have recently made headlines for rising property taxes. States such as Texas, Illinois, [and] Washington have seen increased property values, which means larger taxable values resulting in larger tax bills…
…The Dallas-Fort Worth area saw an 8% jump in property taxes in 2018, the data showed. Homeowners throughout the state now paid about $5,047 in taxes in 2017, compared to $4,065 in 2014.
In fact, as the column later points out, Texas is ranked third nationwide for average property tax rates behind only New Jersey and Illinois and ahead of Vermont and Connecticut.
Texans who have experienced the pain of these increasing rates are demanding the legislature take action to provide reform and relief. Unfortunately, lawmakers in the Texas Legislature are currently on track to spend the state’s surplus revenue on growing government rather than providing property tax relief while legislation to slow the growth of property tax rates has been gutted in the House to exempt school districts who make up the majority of most Texans’ property tax burden.
Lawmakers in the Texas House are scheduled to vote on that legislation, House Bill 2, on Thursday.
