There's good news about taxes. Flip over your property tax bill and make sure you got a 7% reduction in ISD M&O tax rates.
Houston State Senator Paul Bettencourt says this is a long time coming.
"This is the first significant tax rate relief in well over a decade."
Senator Bettencourt says it's not chump change.
"That would add up to over $200 on the average Houston area home; a tax relief between tax rates going down versus last year -- so that's a good way to start the new year. That's at least seven pennies and in some counties it actually adds up to about 11 pennies when you add in cities and counties, like in the city of Houston, for example."
And that's not all; Senator Bettencourt says if you have interest piling up while you appeal a tax bill from a district court decision, you now have an additional three weeks before you're delinquent.