Our elected leaders must be on crack! I just took a look at my Travis County Appraised Value statement and my taxes for my house went up again this year. They screw around with our appraisal values as home values drop across the country. They must think we are stupid.
And the finger pointing begins.... RIGHT ON THE STATEMENT, they actually have the nuts to include this line, "The Texas Legislature does not set the amount of your local taxes. Your property tax burden is decided by your locally elected officials...".
SSSSShhhhhhhiiiiitttttttt!!!!
They all have a hand in our pockets — monkeying around with these numbers, playing games with our tax dollars.
THE SOLUTION?
EVERYONE SHOULD APPEAL. 70% of property tax appeals are successful, but only 7% of homeowners appeal each year.
And, it's easy to appeal. My pal Dr. Peter Stern has a new post on how easy it is to appeal HERE at AustinatIssue.com's Town Hall. Odds are you'll win your appeal, and save hundreds of dollars, all for spending a little more than an hour of your time. I'll see you at the appeal hearing!
UPDATE 5/21: I just found out that it's possible not to have to go to a formal hearing to get your tax payment lower. In many cases the informal meeting with the appraiser, a one on one, could result in a lower tax payment.
5/20/2008
READING THIS POST COULD SAVE YOU $100'S OF DOLLARS...REALLY.
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Sal, link your readers to my blog commentary on the property tax and appraisal system and how to deal with it.
If more people get this information, more will be able to work through it and get some relief from ongoing yearly appraisal value creep!
Keep up the good work for the community, Sal. You're doing a great job!
http://www.statesman.com/sitelife/content/sitelife/persona.html?newspaperUserId=2074324&plckController=PersonaBlog&plckScript=personaScript&plckElementId=personaDest&plckPersonaPage=BlogViewPost&plckPostId=Blog%3a2074324Post%3a3944a6ef-3977-45f8-b75e-0693b581aed3&sid=sitelife.statesman.com
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