THOUGHTS ON SOME ISSUES WITH THE HEALTHCARE DISTRICT THAT OUR LEGISLATORS PROBABLY NEVER THOUGHT OF

MUCH DISPARITY IN CAMERON ASSESSED PROPERTY

Without town meetings and constituent consultation during last spring, our Solons in Austin made the rounds of their colleagues' offices, rounding up support for SB 2034 and HB 4281, two legislative bills  that would force the electorate to vote on a raise in property taxes for an unneeded and unwanted healthcare district.  During this process, the odds are great that our legislative delegation never gave a bit of thought to  the fairness of their actions for the great mass of Cameron County's population.

I woke up at 5 AM today, thinking about the disparity in property tax assessments and about property tax issues in general and the ramifications for Cameron County. The aroma of coffee was not yet wafting in the direction of the bedroom; so, while spending some extra time wiggling my toes under the covers, I thought back to a long-ago lecture on property taxes in a public policy class during my undergraduate years.

Of several salient points, I recall the professor stating that, of all taxes,  property taxes were most painful, owing to the fact that they are more visible.  Furthermore, the lecturer stressed that the only way that property taxes would raise property values would be if a raise in tax assessments had an overall positive effect in raising community quality of life, such as elevating and improving a local school system or in instituting an extremely high quality program of public services.  Unlike other taxes, owner behavior does not change property taxes; and, on the contrary, such taxes change in relation to neighborhood value changes.

Residential property, for most people, is income absorbing, and is not a reliable measure of one's ability to pay taxes.  For example, lower-income people and middle-income people pay a much larger proportion of their incomes in property taxes in comparison with the wealthy.  A rich person may have a grand home (or maybe even two grand homes) and pay a very expensive tax bill.  But, when it comes to the amount of income tied up in that property, the rich person would have a much, much lower percentage of income invested in his/her expensive property, as opposed to middle-income or lower income people, who might have a  vast amount of their capital invested in a house.  Therefore, lower- and middle- classes would be hit much harder by a tax raise.

I would strongly recommend that those who would wish to raise property taxes should engage in some study as to the effects that might result from poorly thought out schemes, especially when those schemes concern unneeded and unwanted healthcare districts.  Indeed, the effects could be disastrous for the majority of Cameron County residents.  This is somewhat ironic in that local politicos pose as champions of the "little guy."