Letter To The Editor: 5 Things You Can Do Today To Lower Your Property Tax Bills In Hays County

Protesting valuations is simply treating a symptom to the most important factor which drives property tax increases. That driving factor? Debt and spending…

Now that our local taxing units (i.e. school, city, county, etc.) know the approximate taxable appraised value of properties in their jurisdictions, the boards of these taxing units will soon begin discussions on setting our new tax rates for the year. While there are still things you can do this year to lower your tax burden, protesting your valuation increase isn’t one of them. If you haven’t filed your 2018 protest for your property it’s too late to protest this year, but there’s still something even more important that you can do.

I’ll list 5 things you can do below, but first, I’m going to explain a bit more about how this property tax process works so that you will understand that protesting valuations is simply treating a symptom to the most important factor which drives property tax increases. That driving factor? Debt and spending.

While many have been led to believe that it’s rising property values which drive our tax increases, this simply isn’t the case.

The reality is that our elected and appointed representatives now know the 2018 tax revenues will still increase even if they set this year’s tax rate to the same rate at which they set it last year. Not only have our valuations increased, we are also seeing that the tax base is growing significantly (in other words, more people are moving here and more are contributing to the kitty). Our taxing units know that if they vote to “leave the tax rate the same” as last year, they are actually voting for a tax increase.

Our taxing unit board members also know that they can choose to LOWER the tax rate to offset the skyrocketing valuation increases and help give us property tax relief. They set the budgets, they determine debt and spending and they set the tax rate after they know the appraised values of properties in their jurisdictions. In fact, each year, they are required by law to set the new tax rate. As part of the Truth in Taxation process, our local boards must schedule a public meeting to discuss the budget and proposed tax rate.

So, what can you do to combat our rapidly increasing property taxes in Hays County? Here are 5 things you can do today:

1. Make sure you know your taxing jurisdictions. To do this, you can look on your property tax statement or search for your property online at the Hays Central Appraisal District website.  You will see each of your property tax jurisdictions listed there. Once you’ve determined which jurisdictions you’re in, you can do a simple google search to find out the names and contact of your elected or appointed representatives as well as more information on when and where they meet. If you have a challenge with this, simply contact the Tax Assessor Collector’s Office and they can give you the contact information for each of your local taxing units.

2. Call and/ or e-mail each of your representatives to let them know that tax payers in Hays County demand property tax relief NOW. Let them know that you are aware that they can set the tax rate to one which lowers or even maintains  the amount of your property tax bill, and that blaming rising property taxes on the rising appraisal valuations is highly misleading.

3. Show up to your local board meetings and speak during public comment. Remember, these meetings are OUR meetings. By law, citizens are allowed time to make public comment at the regularly scheduled board meetings. While public speaking isn’t the favorite past-time of many citizens, consider it your patriotic duty. Not only is it important that your voice is heard, it’s also important to lead by example. What a great way to show your children and others in our community that it’s important to become an active participant in local civics and government.

4. Recruit 5 friends or neighbors to do steps 1-3. There is power in numbers.

5. Be consistent and stay informed. Unfortunately, sending one e-mail won’t do a lot to combat the concerning debt and spending problems we are seeing here in Hays County. It is going to take consistently applied pressure to force our elected representatives to hear us. If they don’t listen, then they need to be replaced. Stay in the loop, get to know your board members and trustees, go to meetings and take it upon yourself to become informed while leading  by example in your community.

The bottom line is that until and unless citizens effectively organize and engage with our local government, nothing will change.

~Ashley Whittenberger
Hays County Resident