END PROPERTY TAX!

You never truly own your home as long as there is property tax.

The two banes of my existence are fighting my property tax appraisals and preparing income tax returns.

Ultimately, I would like to see consumption taxes replace property taxes in Texas.

I have crafted a constitutional amendment which has been introduced in the last two legislative sessions that will insure that you can never lose your homestead to property taxes while you live in it.  (The back taxes would be collected when you sell your property or pass away.)

I would love to see an end to the cursed, maddening, wasteful appraisal process in Texas, replacing it with valuation of your property at the price you paid for it.

And I agree with sound plans to phase out the maintenance & operation (M&O) portion of school property taxes.

Where there is a will, there is a way.  Here is a Texas Public Policy Foundation study on replacing all property tax with sales tax.  Here is another one that gets rid of Robin Hood by gradually increasing the portion of the school district funding from the state while eventually eliminating the maintenance & operations portion of school property tax.

I also would support the plan of my friends in the Eliminate Property Tax Facebook group.

And, of course, if we cut wasteful spending, we can make phasing out property tax even easier.  One big way to reduce spending is to prohibit taxpayer services for non-citizens.  Another is to greatly reduce mandates from the state (and DC) to the districts, thereby eliminating the need for the administrative overhead reporting on compliance.

Some have expressed fears that an state income tax might result if we eliminated property tax.  I am opposed to that, as is every property tax elimination proponent I know.  The Texas Constitution prohibits the legislature from adding a property tax without a vote of the people.  There is almost a zero chance of a state income tax taking hold in Texas.