A $29.2 billion question about Texas property taxes

All right, guys, Anthony Holm here, host of Politics with the Big Dogs.

If you're just joining us, we're in flow of the show, and it's dynamite.

But we've got to go and move on to the next topic, and it's this.

Recently, the state of Texas, in fact, the House Committee on Ways and Means, WAM, And they were breaking out in a prelude to the one of the big fights of the session, property taxes and really property taxes and the massive growth in our property taxes burden on you and I and on the citizenry of Texas.

The law abiding taxpayers is driven by our public schools, right? Public school finance.

So that's the big battle.

That's a big fight.

And it's been the big battle and it's been the big fight for decades.

And the Republican led legislature, in my opinion, frankly, has done nothing.

nothing material to accomplish or solve this, right? We're seeing it every year.

And everybody's pointing the finger at the other guy, right? The states say, oh, it's your local tax appraisers.

Tax appraisers say it's the state.

Some say the local elected officials at the county level say it isn't us.

It's the appraisal board.

That's who's screwing you.

So nobody's taking responsibility and owning it.

But let's talk about what it is and at least have a structural sense and what the real debate is about and will be about so here's the deal state of texas budget just exploded the last five years right seven years or so covid we've talked about this the republican led leader uh led legislature has been the proverbial you know spending like drunken sailors to include our champions right the the senate just went and appropriated like $3 billion in cash and put it into an Alzheimer's fund.

Like, what are we doing in the state of Texas trying to solve Alzheimer's or even the cancer one that Rick Perry did, right? Those are great causes, but they should be done at the federal level.

The state of Texas doesn't have...

the skill set to go do that.

And it's inappropriate use of our tax dollars, but set that aside, right? So you got 338 billion with a B a billion is a thousand million dollars.

And it's a two year state budget, which means that the state budget is like 180 ish billion per year.

Did I do my math right there? I guess maybe $170 billion is more appropriate.

So about $170 billion a year.

And each year, $30 billion of it, of the state dollars, are supporting our public schools, right? So local taxes and state dollars are used to support our public schools.

All right, guys, Anthony Holm here, host of Politics with the Big Dogs.

If you're just joining us, we're in flow of the show, and it's dynamite.

But we've got to go and move on to the next topic, and it's this.

Recently, the state of Texas, in fact, the House Committee on Ways and Means, WAM, And they were breaking out in a prelude to the one of the big fights of the session, property taxes and really property taxes and the massive growth in our property taxes burden on you and I and on the citizenry of Texas.

The law abiding taxpayers is driven by our public schools, right? Public school finance.

So that's the big battle.

That's a big fight.

And it's been the big battle and it's been the big fight for decades.

And the Republican led legislature, in my opinion, frankly, has done nothing.

nothing material to accomplish or solve this, right? We're seeing it every year.

And everybody's pointing the finger at the other guy, right? The states say, oh, it's your local tax appraisers.

Tax appraisers say it's the state.

Some say the local elected officials at the county level say it isn't us.

It's the appraisal board.

That's who's screwing you.

So nobody's taking responsibility and owning it.

But let's talk about what it is and at least have a structural sense and what the real debate is about and will be about so here's the deal state of texas budget just exploded the last five years right seven years or so covid we've talked about this the republican led leader uh led legislature has been the proverbial you know spending like drunken sailors to include our champions right the the senate just went and appropriated like $3 billion in cash and put it into an Alzheimer's fund.

Like, what are we doing in the state of Texas trying to solve Alzheimer's or even the cancer one that Rick Perry did, right? Those are great causes, but they should be done at the federal level.

The state of Texas doesn't have...

the skill set to go do that.

And it's inappropriate use of our tax dollars, but set that aside, right? So you got 338 billion with a B a billion is a thousand million dollars.

And it's a two year state budget, which means that the state budget is like 180 ish billion per year.

Did I do my math right there? I guess maybe $170 billion is more appropriate.

So about $170 billion a year.

And each year, $30 billion of it, of the state dollars, are supporting our public schools, right? So local taxes and state dollars are used to support our public schools.