Gerald Hanks
Recently, Houston City Council voted 15-2 in favor of a proposal for reducing the citywide property tax rate, which cuts the rate from $0.586420 to $0.584210 per $100 valuation — a 0.38 percent decrease.
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While this may be good news for some Houstonians, leading up to the meeting, Mayor Sylvester Turner urged council members to keep property tax rate at its current level to help the city defray expenses for the recovery from Hurricane Harvey.
The dispute between the mayor and the council reportedly stems from rules regarding a revenue cap placed on the city in 2004; after Harvey, Turner proposed a disaster exception to the revenue cap, similar to exceptions approved by the council after the Memorial Day floods of 2015 and the Tax Day floods of 2016.
RELATED: Houston Tax Hike to Assist Harvey Repair Effort Taking Shape
According to Turner, keeping the tax rate at its current level could amount to around $7 per home in additional taxes – an estimated $7 million in revenue for the city to potentially go toward hurricane recovery costs.
Turner previously proposed a nine percent increase in property taxes prior to the city receiving $50 million from the Texas “rainy day” fund.
Meeting minutes show City Councilman Mike Knox introduced the current property tax cut of $0.00221 per $100 valuation, the rate dictated by the revenue cap rules.
After the vote, he reportedly called the measure’s passage a “ victory for taxpayers.”
RELATED: Political Revenge Stalls Tax Break for Flood-Damaged Property in Texas
In a statement, Greg Travis, the council member from District G who voted for the measure, equated Turner’s proposal to “a middle finger” to taxpayers:
“It seems like what we’re doing here is trying to use a technicality to get around the revenue cap when people just want to get into their homes,” Travis said in an interview with a local TV station.
This is a developing situation.
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