Yep

I sure hope 25% sales tax isn't the answer.

Pot meet Kettle.

I think that 15% on up to 25% sales taxes would kill small businesses. You will see restaurants that have already suffered Covid close up. The dwelling they are in may have a mortgage that defaults, which hurts the lender. There are dominoes. It would hurt home builders because the already overpriced materials would have that tax. And we the home buyers would have to pay more for these homes. Autos would be even more expensive, which would hurt the auto dealers. Going out of state won't help on the auto deal. Out of state auto dealers collect Texas taxes. Every retail business would suffer. I think you would see a commercial real estate bust.

I don't have an answer. I don't like property taxes any more than the next person. However, I could just see small towns looking like some old western ghost town.

Our nuke plant would probably be very grateful.

I bet you a quarter they are exempt or have some other favorable discount.

It never was on the table. Smarter and reigning in government spending was on the table...

Politicians weren't wanting to lower property tax

The plant pays around 80-85% of all property taxes for Somervell.

I owe you a quarter.

There was a Somerville Steakhouse that was very good when I was at TAMU. I guess it is out of business.

Prather was only 1% increase in sales tax. Huffines was on it too, but I do not recall a number from him.

Y'all are fooled if you think one person will reign in the state budget/spending. Y'all are also fooled if you think our property taxes are going anywhere without a state income tax. The best we could hope for is a cap or a cost basis equation like mentioned earlier in the thread

Yup

Actually had to work a little. I am not giving away rifles so why are you on my nuts? DC knows I give zero [censored] what he thinks but you love them so get back under the desk boy lol. F you I said what I said and believe it to be true .

That’s not really accurate. Between my home, my rental properties, and my business I pay around 25k in property taxes a year. I hate the taxes but with the case of my business and the rentals those costs are definitely passed on to my customers and renters. Every landlord figures their property taxes in when deciding what to charge for rent so even people who don’t own property pay the tax. Same with businesses they factor in their tax burden and pass it on to the customers.

Now I will agree that the average joe has no idea this is how it works so in a sense you are right that the general public doesn’t care but they are paying these taxes whether they know it or not.

Along those lines I know they would never be able to collect it from all the deadbeats but the fastest way to get meaningful income tax change would be instead of deducting it from pay checks before people get them make people write the government a check once a month or quarterly. That would change the average person’s opinion in a heartbeat.

Yup! I don't escrow my property taxes, and I have no withholding on my pay. April 15th, June 15th, Sept 15, Jan 15th, and Jan 31 are my least favorite days of the year

Aww, that’s cute. Grown man got his panties in a bunch! Can’t even complete a thought without interjecting someone, back to the bottle to find your purpose! Don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll find it in the last drop!

Biggest problem with taxes… is spending. See more transparency and say so on how our govt. schools etc spend it. I’ve seen lots of it squandered away.

Yep, the problem isn't in how taxes are collected. It's how they are spent.

Looks like we had another drive by posting, the OP hasn't made another comment.

Two days ago, after the barking had settled down, I made three additional, separate, constructive comments on this thread.

If anyone bothered to check, they would see that I have contributed more than 300 positive posts to this forum.
None of them are flaming, dismissive, insulting, negative are derogatory comments.
But I guess that is how a person can rapidly drive up their post count.

As for the issue of owning land, our family has been blessed with land and homes in Houston County since 1850.

Thank you one and all for your participation in this lively thread.