What’s Wrong With Property Taxes?
INEFFICIENT: The property tax is one of the most inefficient revenue streams ever devised. Consider that every single property in the great state of Texas must be periodically reassessed (as often as once a year). This process involves extensive comparative market analysis, multiple levels of protests, and often involves expensive legal challenges….just to determine what you owe.
IMMORAL: Property tax is nothing less than renting your property from the government. If you don’t pay your property tax, then the state can take your home or your land, so therefore you really don’t actually own it.
ANTI-OWNERSHIP: The property tax itself is an anchor around the necks of all property-owning Texans, and we must seek a better alternative which does not provide a disincentive for Texans to own their piece of Texas.
FORCED-COMMERCE: Self-sufficient homesteaders may have no use for a “day-job” but the property tax forces citizens into commerce to pay the rent on their property.
The FIX
The Texas Legislature should put forth a constitutional amendment referendum which will require Texas to phase out the property tax over a number of years, and replace it with a consumption tax Without a property tax, economic models show that over 180K jobs will be created in Texas.
Note that we should all strongly oppose an income tax. Indeed, the Texas Constitution already rightfully prohibits an income tax in Texas.
It is possible to eliminate property taxes while decreasing the overall tax burden. See the following resource for more information about how we get from where we are, to a property-tax free Texas: