Maintenance

Combined Harris County Tax Increases 4-5x Greater than Inflation

10/1/24 – Harris County is proposing tax increases four times greater than the rate of inflation in the U.S. The combined tax increase in the last two years is almost 30% while the rate of inflation in the US for 2023 and 2024 (estimated) is 7%. When looking strictly at Houston, inflation is slightly lower – about 6%.

The tax increases proposed by the Democrat-controlled Commissioners Court will fall most heavily on the low-to-middle income homeowners who can least afford them. And it’s unclear whether more affluent homeowners will actually see any benefit from them.

How Did We Get to 30%?

Bill King published an article today detailing the components of the 30% tax increase he computed for 2023 and 2024 combined. King added increases in tax rates and appraised values to compute total tax increases.

Said King, “Officials like to talk about tax rates but ignore appraised values, which for many years have been steadily moving higher. This allows elected officials to claim that they are holding taxes steady or, in this case, mislead taxpayers that an increase is not as dramatic as it actually is.”

According to King, Harris County Appraisal District notified Commissioners Court in advance of setting the new tax rates that appraised values would increase 9.3% in 2023 and 4.48% in 2024.

King multiplied the higher tax rates for various county departments times the appraisal-value increases both last year and this. The calculations included the County budget plus three other special entities: the Hospital District, Port Authority and Flood Control District. Flood Control wants a 64.79% increase for operations and maintenance this year alone.

King meticulously documents his calculations and sources.

When added together, the taxes for the average homeowner will increase in just two years by 29.5% ($1062 → $1,379).

Bill King

That’s roughly 4 times the rate of U.S. inflation (7%) for 2 years and 5 times the rate of inflation in Houston (6%).

Said King, “The total levy for all four entities has gone from slightly under $3.1 billion in 2022 to nearly $4 billion for this year, a staggering 28.7% increase in the overall tax burden from the County in just two years.” And that doesn’t even include the money the county has siphoned from the Toll Road Authority.

King, who also studies population trends, warned that, “In the last decade, Harris County’s net domestic migration has been a negative 200,000. I suspect these massive tax increases will send more running for the exits.”

Flood-Control Operations and Maintenance

On 9/7/2024, I posted an article about deferred flood-control maintenance in Harris County. This was the basis for the proposed flood-control tax increase.

Key points:

  • We have a huge amount of drainage infrastructure requiring regular maintenance.
  • Much of the infrastructure is nearing the end of its useful life (when it costs more to maintain).
  • And every year, we add more and more infrastructure requiring more maintenance.
  • But investment in maintenance has been flat over time (see graph below).
  • Maintenance investment has lagged behind capital improvement spending by as much as 9 to 1.

Unfortunately, even though this is being pitched as a maintenance tax, ballot text doesn’t limit spending to maintenance. It’s for OPERATIONS and maintenance.

Harris County Flood Control District Proposition A says only, “APPROVING THE AD VALOREM TAX RATE OF $0.04897 PER $100 VALUATION IN HARRIS COUNTY FLOOD CONTROL DISTRICT FOR THE CURRENT YEAR, A RATE THAT IS $0.01581 HIGHER PER $100 VALUATION THAN THE VOTER APPROVAL TAX RATE OF HARRIS COUNTY FLOOD CONTROL DISTRICT, FOR THE PURPOSE OF OPERATING AND MAINTAINING THE DISTRICT’S FLOOD RISK REDUCTION INFRASTRUCTURE. LAST YEAR, THE AD VALOREM TAX RATE IN HARRIS COUNTY FLOOD CONTROL DISTRICT WAS $0.03105 PER $100 VALUATION.”

Keep in mind that the 57% increase between $0.04897 and $0.03105 will be applied to higher appraised values bringing the total increase up to 64.79% increase calculated by King.

But just as troubling is the inclusion of operations and the absence of any detail about how, when, where or on what the money will be spent.

This has all the earmarks of a slush fund, in my opinion.

Harris County’s Commissioners have seen fit to move money around before and load up staff with patronage workers. Will they do it again?

Will Democrats use the money to maintain long-neglected ditches in Precinct 3, which reportedly has the highest number of maintenance requests in the county? Or, as with the flood bond, will they spend the money in their constituents’ neighborhoods?

Will they ignore the minimums they guaranteed to Precinct 3, as they did with the 2022 bond?

So many questions!

HCFCD is hosting a series of meetings around the county to “educate” voters about the so-called maintenance tax increase.

DateTimeVenueAddress / Link
Mon, 9/306-8 p.m.Pine Forest Elementary School19702 West Lake Houston Parkway
Humble 77346
Wed, 10/26-8 p.m.Richard & Meg Weekley Community Center8440 Greenhouse Road
Cypress 77433
Thu, 10/36-8 p.m.Martin L. Flukinger Community Center16003 Lorenzo
Channelview 77530
Sat, 10/510 a.m.-12 p.m.Acres Homes Multi-Service Center6719 W. Montgomery Road
Houston 77091
Wed, 10/96-8 p.m.George H. W. Bush Community Center6827 Cypresswood Drive
Spring 77379
Thu, 10/106-8 p.m.Bayland Community Center6400 Bissonnet Street
Houston 77074
Mon, 10/146-8 p.m.El Franco Lee Community Center9500 Hall Road
Houston 77089
Wed, 10/1612-1 p.m.Virtualhttps://us02web.zoom.us/j/82523887264
Thu, 10/176:30-7:30 p.m.Virtualhttps://us02web.zoom.us/j/87924086093
Sat, 10/1910 a.m.-12 p.m.Hardy Community Center11901 W. Hardy Road
Houston 77076
Early voting begins on October 21. Make sure you get your questions answered before then.

Fool Me Twice?

I ended my 9/7/24 post with the following. I said that I could not support the HCFCD request if:

  • Maintenance is delayed here longer than anywhere else.
  • Social factors, not flood risk, determine the distribution of dollars. 
  • County leaders try to redefine the commonly accepted, dictionary meanings of terms like “equity” or “worst.”

Now that I’ve seen the ballot language, I see none of those guarantees.

As the old saying goes, “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.” 

Given the language in HCFCD Prop A, I fear the Lake Houston Area will get screwed again, exactly like we did with the 2018 and 2022 Bonds.

Posted by Bob Rehak on 10/1/2024

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