Texas Town to Abolish Property Tax

[mickeyd]

Town makes enough in sales tax kickback from the state of TX; so no property tax this year. Don't you wish your town taxing authority looked after you as well?

Amid strong sales, Von Ormy to abolish property tax - San Antonio Express-News

 

[eytonxav]

Good idea, I'll bring this up at the next town council meeting

 

[Walt34]

Good idea, I'll bring this up at the next town council meeting

Heretic!

 

[JakeBrake]

I live in an unincorporated area, so I don't pay city property tax. I do pay county property tax and a state forest fire protection tax ($.09 per acre classified as forest).

 

[Htown Harry]

The article has a paywall, so I couldn't read past the first couple of sentences.

Stafford, here in the Houston area, got rid of their property taxes 20 years ago.

It' an unusual spot. They have had the same mayor since 1969, and is home to the only municipal school district in Texas.
Welcome to the City of Stafford, Texas - a great place for families and for business

 

[tfudtuckerpucker]

The article has a paywall, so I couldn't read past the first couple of sentences.

Often you can bypass paywalls by googling the headline and picking an alternate source.

Search for "Von Ormy to abolish property tax" gives a good link.

 

[ziggy29]

It doesn't look like they are abolishing it per se, just planning to suspend it (or set the rate to $0.00) for 2015 because they are getting enough revenue elsewhere. It's also just the city portion of the property tax, which is likely a small percentage of the overall tax burden still due.

 

[FUEGO]

We're still paying property tax but our city (Raleigh) froze rate increases for 4 years during "these difficult economic times" aka the Great Recession. The only impact I can see is the city closed the boathouse nearest my house so I have to drive 15 minutes instead of 10 minutes if I want to rent a boat and go out on a lake. I'll take it!

 

[Chuckanut]

No doubt all the renters will see a significant reduction in their rent.

 

[ERD50]

No doubt all the renters will see a significant reduction in their rent.

As others pointed out, it is just the city tax, from the 'good link':

The average home value in Von Ormy is about $60,000. The property tax rate is 25.5 cents per $100 valuation, meaning residents could see an average tax decrease of about $150 per year if the plan moves forward.

Residents would still be required to pay property taxes to the county as well as school, college and hospital districts.

So I doubt any landlord is going to feel competitive pressures to lower the rent $12.50 per month (reduced by tax deduction).

If they dropped the municipal tax from my bill, I might not even notice it, Including an SSA for roads within our municipality, it is less than 10% of my total property tax bill.

-ERD50