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Harris County Democrats are about to to an end around on a state law that was meant to keep property taxes in check.
It turns out that there is a loophole in that law; allowing them to exceed the 3.5 percent state-imposed property tax cap without approval from voters. Instead, they have approved an 8 percent increase. That loophole was triggered by a disaster declaration, which of course, we had because of Hurricane Beryl.
“They want to go through with an 8 percent increase in your taxes, which is $268 million more dollars than we had this year,” the lone Republican on County Commissioners Court, Tom Ramsey, told Texas Scorecard. “Let me put that another way. We were able to fund all of our programs this year, take care of all of our business this year, do everything we need to do this year, but we need another $268 million?”