Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Okay, so let me try to set this up again.
Texas lawmakers did their job and provided property tax relief
during this legislative session. Unfortunately, local governments are making up
for that by proposing multimillion dollar bonds. Tex Or excuse me, McAllen,
ISD has put forth a two hundred and ninety million
(00:21):
dollars bond. After bills limiting when districts could have elections
died in the Texas legislature, more governments are expected to
follow suits. So what happens if property tax relief results
in no relief because of more debt without debt reform?
What do we do next? Joining us now to talk
about it is James Kintaro, policy director of Texas Public
(00:43):
Policy Foundation. James, good morning, How are you?
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Good morning, Bob, how are you.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
I'm doing well, Thank you, trying to make a little
bit of sense out of all of this, hoping you
can do that for me and for our listeners. Property
tax relief is a good thing, but if not, if
it isn't accompanied by debt reform, tell us about that.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Yeah, you're exactly right. You know. One of the great
frustrations in the state is that property taxes never seemed
to go down despite the best efforts of the legislature.
And I'll give you a little bit of evidence of that.
Back in twenty twenty three, lawmakers passed an eighteen billion
dollars tax cut that should have provided everyone in the
state with a thirteen hundred dollars tax savings, but all
(01:25):
that was eaten up by rate hikes and bond elections.
Now this session, what they did is they passed a
ten billion dollar tax cut, which hopefully will provide folks
some relief this fall. But what's already beginning to happen
is you have local governments licking their chops and putting
together huge bonds that are going to erode those savings.
(01:46):
And so you know, for taxpayers, we might see a decrease,
but it's probably going to go right back up because
local governments love to spend money.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
So, James, what would it take to stop local local
governments from doing that?
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Yeah. One of the great frustrations this session was we
had a local debt reform bill that would have put
in place some reasonable restrictions on how quickly local governments
could tax and spend. Unfortunately, that one hit a wall
during the session, and so taxpayers don't really have a
lot of protection other than to march into the voting
(02:25):
booths and say no and start demanding accountability at the
local level. So, you know, I would encourage everybody to
recognize that when they go to say yes or no
this November, there is a fiscal impact and so you know,
recognize that your vote has a consequence.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Well that's a great point, and the question becomes is
how do they how do you ensure that voters know
that it sounds like, you know, it's a voter information
situation here. They may they may support a bond issue
that includes tax hikes and not know that it includes
tax hikes.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
Yeah, you know that we were able to muster a
little bit of reform on the transparency side. This November
or beginning this November, folks are going to know that, hey,
this is a property tax increase. That statement is going
to be included on every bond proposition moving forward, So
folks will at least have that disclosure statement provided to them.
(03:22):
But you know, what I would love to see the
law lawmakers do in the future is to add a
cost element. You ought to know, Hey, if I vote
for this thing, then my taxes are going to go
up by this amount of money. I think that price
tag would go far to really improving the how voters
(03:44):
interact and what they say.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
Yeah, stick or shaka certainly has an impact on whether
people buy things or not. Maybe it would have an
impact on how people voted. How would that work though,
How would you be able to have that number? You know,
I don't know if it would have to actually actually
be put on the ballot jams or if it would
just be an ad for tizing campaigns putting that number
on it.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
Yeah. Ideally it would be on the ballot and you
would put forward an estimate based based on the average
home value in the area. And actually this information is
already publicly available through something known as a voter information document.
So we would simply lift that information off of a
document that nobody reads and put it on the ballot
(04:26):
so that as you are making that vote, making that decision,
you're doing so in an informed manner.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
Now, would that be a county by county thing or
would that have to be something that's decided at the
state legislature.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
Yeah, Unfortunately, that's going to take legislation to move forward, hopefully,
you know, but there is nothing preventing local governments from
doing extra on the disclosure side. So as local elected
officials are out there talking about bonds and debt, there's
nothing preventing them from saying, hey, look, you know, if
you vote for this bond, it's going to raise your
(05:00):
taxes by X number of dollars. So, you know, local
elected officials play a part in this too.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
Have they have they is, you know, said anything or
expressed an interest in doing that, because I think you're right,
that is exactly what local leaders should be doing, absent
any action from Austin.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Yeah, you know, there's been such a reluctance on on
on local elected officials I think too. You know, put
forward this information in a straightforward way. And you know
one of the unfortunate consequences of that is that we're
we're drowning in debt. If you look at some of
the latest data, we have five hundred billion dollars in
(05:40):
total local debt in this state. It's it's been mushrooming
out of control and as a result, everyone's property taxes
are going up up.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
That's a shocking number. You're talking about half a trillion
dollars just in local debt. James Kin Tarrell, policy director
of the Texas Public Policy Foundation. Thank you for shining
a light on it.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
We shape that very much, sir, Thanks for having me.
Bob
Okay, so let me try to set this up again.
Texas lawmakers did their job and provided property tax relief
during this legislative session. Unfortunately, local governments are making up
for that by proposing multimillion dollar bonds. Tex Or excuse me, McAllen,
ISD has put forth a two hundred and ninety million
(00:21):
dollars bond. After bills limiting when districts could have elections
died in the Texas legislature, more governments are expected to
follow suits. So what happens if property tax relief results
in no relief because of more debt without debt reform?
What do we do next? Joining us now to talk
about it is James Kintaro, policy director of Texas Public
(00:43):
Policy Foundation. James, good morning, How are you?
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Good morning, Bob, how are you.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
I'm doing well, Thank you, trying to make a little
bit of sense out of all of this, hoping you
can do that for me and for our listeners. Property
tax relief is a good thing, but if not, if
it isn't accompanied by debt reform, tell us about that.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Yeah, you're exactly right. You know. One of the great
frustrations in the state is that property taxes never seemed
to go down despite the best efforts of the legislature.
And I'll give you a little bit of evidence of that.
Back in twenty twenty three, lawmakers passed an eighteen billion
dollars tax cut that should have provided everyone in the
state with a thirteen hundred dollars tax savings, but all
(01:25):
that was eaten up by rate hikes and bond elections.
Now this session, what they did is they passed a
ten billion dollar tax cut, which hopefully will provide folks
some relief this fall. But what's already beginning to happen
is you have local governments licking their chops and putting
together huge bonds that are going to erode those savings.
(01:46):
And so you know, for taxpayers, we might see a decrease,
but it's probably going to go right back up because
local governments love to spend money.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
So, James, what would it take to stop local local
governments from doing that?
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Yeah. One of the great frustrations this session was we
had a local debt reform bill that would have put
in place some reasonable restrictions on how quickly local governments
could tax and spend. Unfortunately, that one hit a wall
during the session, and so taxpayers don't really have a
lot of protection other than to march into the voting
(02:25):
booths and say no and start demanding accountability at the
local level. So, you know, I would encourage everybody to
recognize that when they go to say yes or no
this November, there is a fiscal impact and so you know,
recognize that your vote has a consequence.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Well that's a great point, and the question becomes is
how do they how do you ensure that voters know
that it sounds like, you know, it's a voter information
situation here. They may they may support a bond issue
that includes tax hikes and not know that it includes
tax hikes.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
Yeah, you know that we were able to muster a
little bit of reform on the transparency side. This November
or beginning this November, folks are going to know that, hey,
this is a property tax increase. That statement is going
to be included on every bond proposition moving forward, So
folks will at least have that disclosure statement provided to them.
(03:22):
But you know, what I would love to see the
law lawmakers do in the future is to add a
cost element. You ought to know, Hey, if I vote
for this thing, then my taxes are going to go
up by this amount of money. I think that price
tag would go far to really improving the how voters
(03:44):
interact and what they say.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
Yeah, stick or shaka certainly has an impact on whether
people buy things or not. Maybe it would have an
impact on how people voted. How would that work though,
How would you be able to have that number? You know,
I don't know if it would have to actually actually
be put on the ballot jams or if it would
just be an ad for tizing campaigns putting that number
on it.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
Yeah. Ideally it would be on the ballot and you
would put forward an estimate based based on the average
home value in the area. And actually this information is
already publicly available through something known as a voter information document.
So we would simply lift that information off of a
document that nobody reads and put it on the ballot
(04:26):
so that as you are making that vote, making that decision,
you're doing so in an informed manner.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
Now, would that be a county by county thing or
would that have to be something that's decided at the
state legislature.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
Yeah, Unfortunately, that's going to take legislation to move forward, hopefully,
you know, but there is nothing preventing local governments from
doing extra on the disclosure side. So as local elected
officials are out there talking about bonds and debt, there's
nothing preventing them from saying, hey, look, you know, if
you vote for this bond, it's going to raise your
(05:00):
taxes by X number of dollars. So, you know, local
elected officials play a part in this too.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
Have they have they is, you know, said anything or
expressed an interest in doing that, because I think you're right,
that is exactly what local leaders should be doing, absent
any action from Austin.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Yeah, you know, there's been such a reluctance on on
on local elected officials I think too. You know, put
forward this information in a straightforward way. And you know
one of the unfortunate consequences of that is that we're
we're drowning in debt. If you look at some of
the latest data, we have five hundred billion dollars in
(05:40):
total local debt in this state. It's it's been mushrooming
out of control and as a result, everyone's property taxes
are going up up.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
That's a shocking number. You're talking about half a trillion
dollars just in local debt. James Kin Tarrell, policy director
of the Texas Public Policy Foundation. Thank you for shining
a light on it.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
We shape that very much, sir, Thanks for having me.
Bob
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