Harris County homeowners have seen their property taxes shoot up by nearly 30% over the last two years.
In a recent column, Rice University's Bill King wrote that, "It has been widely reported by the local media that Harris County Commissioners’ Court increased taxes by 8% at their meeting on September 19.
However, the County’s public tax notices clearly show that for the increase for the average homeowner will be at least 15% and may be as high as 19%. While this increase is jaw-dropping, it is made even more egregious because it comes on the heels of a nearly 12% increase last year, making the increase over the last two years 29.5%. These increases will result in the County and its related entities receiving nearly $900 million more in tax revenue than just two years ago. To say this increase is unprecedented is a gross understatement. I suspect this is the largest two-year tax increase in the history of the State of Texas."
It gets even worse if you live in the City of Houston. King also writes, "Four members of the Houston City Council have proposed increasing the City’s tax rate by 5%. However, as with Harris County’s recent increase, the effect will be significantly higher for homeowners because the average value of homes in the City has gone up, at least according to the Harris County Appraisal District (HCAD)."
So what's the impact of this? King told KTRH that it could leave Houston looking a lot like Detroit, another Democrat led city.
"This was the path Detroit started down. They kept raising taxes. They wouldn't cut expenses. Crime got out of control,' King said.
And that led to a large population shift.
"The population of Detroit in 1950 was almost two million people," King said. Today it's 600,000."
The Houston City Council will discuss their options in a meeting on Wednesday.