Momentum - Business to Business Online Magazine November 2017 | Page 15

Taxing Matters The Tax Collector’s Tax Heroes By: Cheryl E. Johnson, PCC Galveston Co. Tax Assessor Collector [email protected] Being tax assessor collector is not something you spend your life aspiring to achieve. It is hard work, consumes many hours, typically after 5:00 pm because that is when most property owners are able to discuss their tax challenges. From October through February nearly everyone is mad at me because taxes are due or delinquent. From April through July the rest are upset with the county appraisal district but, because the title confuses people (an assessor calculates taxes - not determine values). That leaves March (primaries on even number years and as Voter Registrar those duties increase), August and September – the months my office assists governments in adoption of tax rates and we are designing the newest tax bill and trying to get everything ready for tax season. Not a whole lot of down time. So, busy is a way of life in the position of tax assessor collector. For those of you aspiring to be one, the required skills are thick skin, ability to multi-task and thrive in constant chaos and extraordinary patience. Why did I share all of that? Because when I pondered this position, it was the historic tax heroes that inspired me. It was Paul Bettencourt battling Harris County governments against ballooning government excess who provided the realization that you did not have to LIKE taxes to collect them. It was Ronald Reagan’s historic leadership and quotes that kept me motivated. My favorite? “The problem is not that people are taxed too little, the problem is that government spends too much.” Reagan was an icon of taxpayer freedom thanks to Reaganomics. (For those too young to remember, Reaganomics advanced reduction of the national debt and federal budget deficits by reducing government spending and taxes. What a novel idea.) Then there was Harold Jarvis. Jarvis spent 16 years educating Californians about the state’s unfair property tax and gathering signatures to force government to hold an election to change to price paid as the basis of taxation. I DREAM of a Prop 13 process of taxation. Price paid - not price-paid-by-your-neighbor-increases-your-value-thus-taxes system we have here. Just imagine – no appraisal district, no annual appraisal notice increases – taxation based on what you paid for your property. Under this system, you can actually budget for the tax-love-letter not anticipate it with dread. Lady Godiva sparks everyone’s imagination but did you know this icon of taxpayer freedom rode naked through the streets of Coventry so that her husband would lessen her people’s tax burden? The Sons of Liberty concocted the Boston Tea Party in protest of England’s excessive taxation. And Zorro…a fictional hero who stood up for the people against a cruel alcalde (Spanish municipal magistrate) because of – guess what – unreasonable taxation. And don’t forget Robin Hood who stole from the rich and gave to the poor predominantly because the Sheriff of Nottingham was out collecting – you guessed it – TAXES! Being a fiscal conservative and taxpayer advocate who aspires to be like these tax heroes places one in the line of fire of opponents of lower taxes and smaller government, particularly by imposters who sustain the lingo long enough to get elected (or worse re-elected). One would think, after 23 years of ducking arrows shot by imposters that I would get used to it. I never have. Instead I worry. I worry about tomorrow. Where are the tax heroes of tomorrow? Surely the TEA Party wasn’t the beginning and end of our modern day icons of taxpayer freedom? Well – until someone surfaces, I will duck arrows and I will never forget that the money I collect for local governments is not theirs – it is yours, handed over to me because of your incredible sense of civic duty and responsibility. You are the real tax heroes and every politician would be well served to remember that! MOMENTUM / November 2017 14