22 FEB 2018 – One year ago, while waiting to meet Mr. Heflin, I stood in the Texas Public Policy Foundation’s lobby, reading the prominent biographical tribute to their founder.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw, standing at a distance besides the reception desk, a large, well dressed man, studying me in silence.
I turned. He spoke.
“You’re here about that money I owe….”
I laughed, complimenting him, “I love your sense of humor!”
No Relief. No Reform. #EliminatePropertyTax
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YES, TEXAS CAN PUT A HALT TO ONEROUS PROPERTY TAX
Talmadge Heflin
HOUSTON CHRONICLE
Published 6:30 am, Saturday, February 6, 2010
If
you’re a homeowner in Texas, hopefully, you’ve already paid your
property taxes. After last Monday’s deadline, what was already a hefty
and growing tax bill will become even larger.
The Texas Legislature
and our last two governors have acted in good faith to reduce property
taxes, but the combination of rising property valuations and local
government excesses have caused property taxes to continue their surge.
So what can our state do to relieve this burden?
Last spring, the
Texas Public Policy Foundation asked Arduin, Laffer & Moore
Econometrics LLC to answer this question: “How can Texas eliminate the
burden of property taxes and still meet the needs of Texans?” The
answer? A broad-based sales tax.
By broadening the sales tax base and
adjusting the rate, lost property tax revenue could be replaced with
additional sales tax revenue, thereby getting rid of the need for
property taxes altogether. A major burden on homeowners and businesses
could finally be lifted — and would only require relatively modest
changes.
If the state were to eliminate property taxes today, for example, and replace them with a broad-based sales tax, the rate could be as low as 9 percent, if it taxed all services that are taxed in at least one other state. This adjustment would be revenue-neutral; in other words, it would generate the same amount of money for state and local governments as the current system.
Or the newly adjusted
sales tax rate could be set at 12.5 percent, which would tax the current
base plus the sale of property, and again, still generate the same
amount of revenue.
Whatever policymakers decide, the research clearly
shows that abandoning the property tax system is not only possible but
relatively simple. And there are a number of economic incentives to do
so.
The Arduin research demonstrated that personal income, a
measure of the state’s wealth, in Texas could increase by as much as
$3.3 billion in the first year alone. Over a five-year period, the
state’s wealth could potentially see gains of $52 billion.
In
addition to creating a wealthier society, “the proposed tax reform would
lead to a net gain of new jobs, during a five-year horizon, between
127,700 and 312,700 over the job growth Texas would have had if no tax
reform were implemented.”
This fact alone — generating between 100,000 and 300,000 new jobs — should be enough to give people pause and reconsider how we pay for government.
The tax swap could also help de-bureaucratize local governments around the state. Right now, more than 3,700 local governmental entities — cities, counties, school districts — administer a property tax. With the elimination of this system, these resources could be focused elsewhere.
Perhaps the greatest incentive, though, has nothing to do with creating more wealth, adding jobs to the state’s economy or reducing the size of government. It has to do with individual liberty.
So long as Texas’ property
tax system remains in place, no man or woman who owns a home or operates
a business or has property of any kind will ever truly own what he or
she possesses.
Right now, all of us rent from the government. Indefinitely.
Failure
to pay your local property taxes in Texas means the government has the
right to seize your property, whether you own it outright or not. Is
this the kind of system we want?
Owning property is a fundamental right of every Texan, of every American, and there are better ways to raise money to pay for government than threatening to take the homes and businesses of our state’s residents. And if we can improve our economy and create jobs in the process, is that not all the more reason to do so?
It is time to abandon the property tax system and, in the process, make ourselves all the better for it.
Heflin is the Director of the Center for Fiscal Policy at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a nonprofit, free-market research institute based in Austin. He is a former chairman of the Texas House Appropriations Committee.