Houston Property Taxes (San Antonio, Spring, Anton: school district, community college, property tax)

[cdelena]

Originally Posted by davidt1

Retirees and low-income folks do not benefit from "no income tax" policy at all.
...

Not 100% true. Retirees often have withdrawals from tax deferred accounts (IRAs and 401Ks) that constitutes taxable income.

[jfre81]

I'm also wondering if davidt, at any time, was a "low-income person."

What sounds like not much money to you might sound like a lot to someone not so fortunate.

$50 may not be much, but it can keep electricity and running water in my place for a month in the Houston winter.

[imaterry78259]

Here in San Antonio, they are building the Tah Mahal schools in the 100 million dollars range - They have about 5 new ones they are building right now. Since most of your tax is ISD, why do you have to pay the ISD tax if you do not have children in public schools or a single person?

[nooneknowsmyname]

Originally Posted by davidt1

Retirees and low-income folks do not benefit from "no income tax" policy at all.

I'm sorry, but I disagree with this blanket statement. This assumes that retirees are also low-income folks. If a retired couple receives 100,000.00 yearly (not unusual for many well off baby boomers I know who plan to retire in the next 3-5 years) from a combination of state/federal pension, social security, private pension, and investments, why wouldn't they benefit from living in Texas a "no income tax" state compared to California a "high income tax state" where they could pay as much as 9% in state income tax. Seems to me like there is a definite advantage to living in a "no income tax" state.

[davidt1]

There you go again. First of all, I apologize to well-heeled seniors. Yes, I forgot about 401k and stuff like that. Now look here, y'all. Every time I look for information on property taxes I come across some proud, well-intentioned, but probably naive Texans who boast that "although our property taxes are on the high side, but we have no income tax." As if that somehow offsets the high property taxes. It does if you make a lot of money. I show you that in a minute. They are also quick to point out that some studies say Texas has a very low tax burden. Well, I have looked at of the comparisons myself and guess what -- they don't take into account property taxes.

Let's look two people we will call person A and person B. Let's also say that they save 10% in income tax and pay 3% in property tax.

A makes 50k a year and has a 200k home. The 5k A saves income tax is used to offset the property tax. A still pays 1k for property tax.

B makes 150k a year and has a 300k home. B saves 15k in income tax. After paying property taxes, B is 6k ahead.

This is what I mean when I say low-income folks do not benefit much from the so-called "no income tax" policy. One day the economy turns sour. Both A and B lose their jobs. They have no incomes but their high property taxes stay the same.

If they had paid some income taxes and lower property taxes, they would be better off now. In this scenario, it's a blessing to have to pay a low property tax while they are unemployed. And the income tax that they had paid into the system could be used to pay for school and other services. Without this income tax, the system would have to rely on high property taxes to sustain itself. And that's a lot riding on the back of home owners.

[jfre81]

My father makes ~50K a year and lives in a ~200K house and if he was the only person paying to keep the place up they wouldn't be living in that house anymore.

Property taxes tax every income in the household, but can only tax that household once on property. Everyone ignores this when this debate comes up.

Beware also of states that include vehicles and other personal property. If you're making $150K a year, you're paying for whatever's in the garage.

I saw someone driving a Lamborghini on the North Loop earlier today...before I moved to North Carolina (where they do tax vehicles, trailers etc. as taxable property) and wondering how much he'd pay to garage that sucker in NC - where I don't recall seeing very many expensive sports cars, incidentally.

You own your property but infrastructure is not free. Just because you connect a pipe to a toilet doesn't mean it's going to flush - it has to have somewhere to go. You're billed for the water but someone had to go out and lay pipes to the new developments. You definitely did not want to live anywhere near a landfill when you built your home, but you definitely want your trash to get there. That's expensive, especially with today's fuel prices. Whenever you pull out of your driveway, you want a way to get to your job in the city on time, right? That's not easy when everyone lives and works in the same place and they're 25 miles apart.

When you go and build a new house in a new subdivision where there was nothing whatsoever before, new infrastructure has to be built. That's why your taxes are higher. You could have stayed in the city, but no, you chose to live in the "country" while working in the city. This is why we have a Grand Parkway. This is why little ol' rural Texas Highway 6 that used to run around the little sugar refining village in Fort Bend County has workers hammering away (right now, as I type this in fact - I was just coming into town from over there an hour ago) at a new overpass so people on either side of 6 or 90A don't have to sit through three cycles of red lights before they can get across.

Larger cities and/or smaller ones with lots of business and/or industry will have lower taxes because they pick up a portion of the tab for running a municipality - residential suburbs do not.

I'm a renter in a city where $650/mo can get you a highrise studio apartment in downtown, and living reasonably well on considerably less, so I have few complaints about property taxes in Texas myself.

[Mom2Feebs]

Originally Posted by gmh1013

My house in AZ was sold for 315k and is really cheap by AZ standards and We paid 1440 a year property tax for 06.
The house we bout was 139k and its 4300 a year! That is Insane!
I thought Texas was a Republican state!

Yes, but in Arizona you have STATE INCOME TAX. We Texans are starting to sound like a bunch of parrots!

NO STATE INCOME TAX here!

There is also something called HOMESTEAD EXEMPTION. It's a nice little bonus, too.

[jfre81]

If you have a homestead exemption, you are better off than just about everyone else in this country in regards to taxes. Texas has probably the most generous homestead exemption policy - thank those big family farms and ranches that people most associate with Texas for that.

I know people who are more broke than I am who own property in this state - not prime downtown Houston real estate, mind you, but property in this state nonetheless. They do it because of homestead exemptions.

You can't get one buying a brand-new lot in a brand-new subdivision and building a brand-new house, but nobody is forcing you to do that.

If you are a newcomer, actually take some time to do some research on all your options before complaining.

This business of tax assessors arbitrarily deciding that properties are worth more than what they were appraised for is BS, and should be challenged, but by and large the tax laws here are much more favorable to the taxpayer and the government. Taxes do suck, but they suck a lot worse in other places.

For now.

This state's inability to balance school budgets and meet exploding populations in some areas scares me, but hopefully that won't cause statewide spikes in taxes in the future. I can't put anything past politicians anymore.

[davidt1]

Income Tax + Fixed Low Property Tax = Good

No Income Tax + High Property Tax = Bad

No Income Tax + Adjustable High Property Tax = Very Bad

[Mom2Feebs]

I disagree. I read your scenario in a post on this page--on paper, sounds great, but property tax revenue is dictated by the county for schools and improvements. I'd rather have the county controlling that than the state, personally.