Tag Archive for: tax

Harris County Commissioners to Consider Tax Increase at Special Meeting Today

Under the cover of COVID, Harris County Commissioners will consider a tax increase at a special meeting today.

Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo conducting Monday’s special meeting.

Tax Increase: #1 on Agenda

Item #1 on the agenda says: Request by Budget Management for discussion and determination if the Court would like (1) to proceed with initial consideration of proposed property tax rates based on the July 24th Harris County Appraisal District (HCAD) estimate or (2) to take no action and wait to propose rates based on the Certified Appraisal Roll expected from HCAD in late August.”

If you got a small black and white post card in the mail last week from HarrisPropertyTaxes.org, this is what it was about.

Reapportionment: #2 on Agenda

Item #2 on the agenda also promises to be a lively discussion: Request by the County Attorney for authorization to file on behalf of the County friend of the court briefs and join in existing/future litigation that challenges federal efforts to exclude non-citizens in population counts when legislative boundaries are redrawn and to further authorize the County Attorney to engage Special Counsel at no cost to the County.”

Monday Special Meeting Considered Changing Election Process

This follows on the heels of another special meeting on Monday. That meeting discussed changing the election process to bring it under the influence of politically appointed, not elected officials.

All these changes follow several decisions to replace high-level county employees with considerable experience. One for instance, was in finance.

Major changes are afoot in Harris County. And none of the mainstream media seem to have the bandwidth to cover the story.

So keep your head up.

How to View

To view archived videos of commissioners’ meetings, click here.

To view archived agendas of commissioners’ meetings, click here.

To view meetings live and in progress, click here.

Posted by Bob Rehak on 8/6/2020

1073 Days since Hurricane Harvey

Deadline Approaching for Hurricane Harvey Tax Relief

In the weeks after Hurricane Harvey made landfall, Congress passed the Cruz-Cornyn-Rubio bill, which provided crucial tax relief for hurricane survivors. An important part of this bill eliminated the tax penalty for hurricane survivors who wanted to withdraw from retirement accounts to pay for the costs of repairs storm damages.

Such qualified retirement account withdrawals must be made by December 31, 2018 – a deadline that is quickly approaching.

If you are still in the process of rebuilding and recovering from the ravages of Harvey, contact your tax advisor for more information.

Residents trying to escape as Harvey's floodwaters rose
Residents of Kingwood Village Estates as Harvey’s floodwaters rose.

The IRS also provides information on this and other Harvey-related programs at this link.

Thousands of families in the Lake Houston area suffered hurricane-related damage during Harvey and could qualify. Hardly anyone finished Harvey-related repairs before this year. So check this out if you haven’t already. Remind your friends, neighbors and relatives. Every little bit helps. Only 22 tax-relief days left till New Years!

Posted by Bob Rehak on December 9, 2018

467 Days since Hurricane Harvey