Question regarding property taxes... (Bastrop, Howe: city hall, credit, homes)

[mimimomx3]

Amazing that WE have to pay for schools through bonds. Developers should have to build schools when they clear land for new neighborhoods.

[achtungpv]

Originally Posted by Exiled Texan

My "issue" with property taxes is it forces people who have long paid for their homes but have now retired (without any income) to downsize.

Thought one of the perks of old age was having paid off your home and able to live in it until they carry you out in a pine box. I understand they freeze property taxes when you hit a certain age, but when you retire....your income drops....it doesn't stay the same.

I never thought of it until a few years ago when a friend's parents that live off of Shoal Creek told me that it didn't matter that they had only a couple of mortgage payments left since their mortgage was ~$100 and their taxes were $1200 a month.

[angielt]

Originally Posted by atxcio

Homestead exemption is a discount of your appraised value by the taxing entity, as well as a limit as to how much higher they can appraise your property in a given year (10%). You can file for it for free, the form is available on all of the appraisal district sites (like hayscad.org). You must be living in the property on Jan 1st of the year you are applying for in order to qualify. After applying once, the exemption stays on until you cancel it or move away.

The easy part to understand is the 10% increase rule, as that is applied by the appraising entity (Hays CAD)... They can only increase your property value by a maximum of 10% each year. The other discounts, it's a bit more difficult. Each entity may give you a different discount in appraised value due to the homestead exemption. The Hays County ESD might give you $10000 off (your appraised value) and the Dripping Springs ISD might give you $15000 off (I think ISDs are mandated to give you that amount)... it's difficult to calculate exactly, but your best bet might be to look up the actual property tax bill for that address (or one in the same neighborhood) at the tax collector site: Hays County Tax Assessor/Collector > Home instead of the CAD.

Basically, the homestead exemption gives you some minimal relief in your estimated tax bill -- as well as the 10% increase protection.

Be really careful on looking into property taxes and check with the county because I'm pretty sure that Dripping Springs ISD does NOT give you a break for the homestead exemption--it is one of the few school districts that does not give any breaks for a homestead and it is not required that they give you any break by the state. Good Luck!

[Zzyzx]

Originally Posted by angielt

Be really careful on looking into property taxes and check with the county because I'm pretty sure that Dripping Springs ISD does NOT give you a break for the homestead exemption--it is one of the few school districts that does not give any breaks for a homestead and it is not required that they give you any break by the state. Good Luck!

We get the full 15K homestead exemption for Dripping Springs ISD.

[pjoseph2]

Originally Posted by mimimomx3

Amazing that WE have to pay for schools through bonds. Developers should have to build schools when they clear land for new neighborhoods.

Umm, and who then pays the Developers?

On another note:
If you don't want to pay any school taxes when you retire, i hear the world is a bit bigger these days: 200+ countries

[hoffdano]

Originally Posted by mimimomx3

Amazing that WE have to pay for schools through bonds. Developers should have to build schools when they clear land for new neighborhoods.

Honestly this makes no sense at all.

If developers built the schools - where do you think they would get the money? They would get it from the buyers of the homes.

As a practical mattter - how would attendance zones be handled? Do you think developers of neighboring developments would have an easy time agreeing who spends what?

Also - the majority of school taxes are for M&O or Maintenance and Operations expenses. These pay for most of the ongoing expenses of a school district. Texas limits M&O at 1.5%. The rest of school taxes are related to bond expenses or capital projects. Texas limits this portion to 0.5%.

So even if a developer paid to build a school - the ongoing expenses are what matters the most.

Why would you trust a developer to design and build schools? Their motivation is to spend the least possible.

[mimimomx3]

Originally Posted by pjoseph2

Umm, and who then pays the Developers?

On another note:
If you don't want to pay any school taxes when you retire, i hear the world is a bit bigger these days: 200+ countries

Ummm....the people who buy their houses and will use their schools?

[mimimomx3]

Originally Posted by hoffdano

Honestly this makes no sense at all.

If developers built the schools - where do you think they would get the money? They would get it from the buyers of the homes.

As a practical mattter - how would attendance zones be handled? Do you think developers of neighboring developments would have an easy time agreeing who spends what?

Also - the majority of school taxes are for M&O or Maintenance and Operations expenses. These pay for most of the ongoing expenses of a school district. Texas limits M&O at 1.5%. The rest of school taxes are related to bond expenses or capital projects. Texas limits this portion to 0.5%.

So even if a developer paid to build a school - the ongoing expenses are what matters the most.

Why would you trust a developer to design and build schools? Their motivation is to spend the least possible.

Developers should pay for the initial infrastructure for a new development instead of passing it along to ALL taxpayers. If you want to live in a new development, then you, as a homebuyer, should pay for the creation of roads, fire stations, schools, etc., NOT pass this along to all taxpayers who have no interest or desire to live there. I don't have a problem with my property taxes to support schools and roads once they are built.

[hoffdano]

Originally Posted by mimimomx3

Developers should pay for the initial infrastructure for a new development instead of passing it along to ALL taxpayers. If you want to live in a new development, then you, as a homebuyer, should pay for the creation of roads, fire stations, schools, etc., NOT pass this along to all taxpayers who have no interest or desire to live there. I don't have a problem with my property taxes to support schools and roads once they are built.

In the case of schools - what if the school district doesn't need to build new schools? Most new developments don't fill up suddenly. They take years to build out. A new school might not be needed for years.

I have been part of committees that built school bond packages. We used to talk about a "newcomer" tax so that someone moving in has to pay a price rather than just inherit decades of investment. But there is no such taxation vehicle in Texas.

I think your suggestion is simply unworkable. It is not materially different from taxpayers that don't want the US to spend as much on defense, or health care, or anything else. Except for pay as you go systems like toll roads or gasoline taxes, it is difficult to single out any group of taxpayers.

Many school districts by the way try to get developers to donate land for schools - an effective way to save money for the school district and steer school sites (especially elementary) close to new developments.

[iceshots]

If developers had to build schools as part of the development work, is that new school now restricted to kids from that development only? Does that mean "richer" developments within the same ISD get better schools than the "poorer" development? Isn't this one of the things that people complain about?

Even if the above situation worked, it may only work at the elementary level. What happens at the Middle and High School level? Who builds the schools?

I agree that new homes should carry some kind of newcomer tax since they are increasing the population base and therefore driving additional infrastructure costs, but, it should still be administered through the tax base. However, this means that a long time resident in the area gets hit with a newcomer tax if they move into a newly built home.

I don't think there is a simple solution to anything.