TCCRI Applauds Rep. Hilderbran’s Call for Long-Term Shift Away from Property Taxes
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 14, 2012
AUSTIN, TX – Yesterday State Rep. Harvey Hilderbran announced his commitment to begin a long-term approach to abolish property taxes, with an initial focus on reducing school property taxes. Rep. Hilderbran, who chairs the House Committee on Ways & Means (the standing committee with jurisdiction over tax issues), “[told] 1200 WOAI news that he will introduce a measure in the upcoming legislative session to begin the process of abolishing residential and commercial property taxes, which are the largest income generator for local governments and schools.”
John Colyandro, TCCRI Executive Director, issued the following statement:
“Property taxation represents a growing impediment to homeownership and the most serious challenge to property rights. Property taxes penalize investment in capital-intensive business and drag the state into interminable school finance litigation. A better approach would be to shift toward a general revenue solution to school finance while also vastly improving public education efficiency. Comptroller Susan Combs’ FAST report provides a solid foundation for achieving greater efficiency.
“School district maintenance & operations property taxes repeatedly fail to serve public schools, taxpayers, and the state, as evidenced by the decades-long, self-defeating cycle of school finance litigation that continues today. The state Supreme Court has repeatedly urged legislators to ‘choose a new path’ for school finance. We applaud Chairman Hilderbran for his plans to initiate a shift away from the property tax in favor of a system that will fully fund public education without burdening home and business owners.”
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In a February 2011 report titled Funding Public Education Fairly, TCCRI recommends “[a] blueprint for how to begin transitioning away from property taxes to fund public education,” citing “…a number of long-standing, fundamental problems with the property taxes generally, and the maintenance and operations tax specifically…”
A 2006 report by TCCRI, Choosing a New Path, recommended that the state: “Steer public school finance away from reliance on an inequitable, economically damaging, and administratively-costly tax that will continually put the State on a collision course with the constitutional prohibition against a statewide property tax.”
