Momentum - Business to Business Online Magazine | Page 18
Truth In
Taxation
Property
Taxas
In a
Nutshell
By: Cheryl E. Johnson, PCC
Galveston Co. Tax Assessor Collector
[email protected]
There are four phases in the Texas property tax system – Appraisal (when the county appraisal district locates,
lists and appraises properties), Equalization (when notices of value are mailed and property owners have the
opportunity to protest those values), Assessment (when tax offices assist governments with adoption of tax
rates, calculate them and prepare bills) and Collection (no explanation needed).
By the end of July (or August in Harris County), appraisal districts will complete the Equalization phase by
certifying values and providing them to tax offices and local governments and the Assessment phase will begin
with budgets being hammered out and tax rates adopted.
Embodied in the Texas Constitution and the Tax Code are requirements that property owners be notified
of each of these actions. These requirements, Truth in Taxation or TNT, insure the tax process is transparent
and that you have the opportunity to provide input. Sadly,
few show up – whether at the CAD to protest the value
or at government budget workshops and tax rate hearings.
Preliminary Value
Millions of dollars in advertising will be spent through the
Increases
end of September as quarter page ads are published by Texas
government for the purpose of keeping you informed of what
County
17%
they are up to. Will you read them? You need to, as they will
provide dates and times of meetings and whether a tax increase
Bayou Vista
15%
is proposed.
CLS 15%
With property values at all-time highs, local officials need you
to remind them that spending plans are being developed with
our money, not theirs and that, since values are up, tax rates
should come down. That is how this tax system was intended
to work. Legislators will tell you that they are not to blame
for tax increases – local elected officials and those that elected
them are. They will tell you that it is your duty to attend the
hearings and to speak up – for or against the proposed spending
plans and if you don’t, you shouldn’t complain.
18
MOMENTUM / August 2016
Dickinson
Friendswood-GC
Galveston
Hitchcock
Jamaica Beach
Kemah
La Marque
League City-GC
Santa Fe
Texas City
Tiki Island
12%
19%
26%
15%
35%
20%
15%
20%
20%
1%
15%