Georgetown Against Property Tax Reform?

Senate Bill 2 is being lobbyed against with paid lobbyists to the detriment of property owners/tax payers. Many governments are using precious taxpayer dollars to hire expensive, influential lobbyists to push against the voters' best interests.

Georgetown is a paid member of the Texas Municipal League (TML) which is a secretive lobbying organization for citys. They do not make their revenue and expenditures available to the public, even though public funds are used to support them.

The Dallas News has an excellent description of the bill and of the opposition to it. The arguments being used to try and stop SB2 are exposed as being phony and untrue scare tacticts.

Some key excerpts:

"You say you want local control for your town and county budgets, and you want state lawmakers to butt out of your business. In truth, you actually fear your own voters butting into your business which is really our business, not yours. It's so obvious.

SB 2 would require local governments to hold tax approval elections (called rollbacks) on the big Election Day in November — not, like now, hidden on obscure election dates."

"The city/county opposition cries the Texas mantra: "local control." That's shorthand for "Austin, butt out!" Under local control, city councils and county commissions call the shots on property tax bills by setting tax rates (that get multiplied with appraised values for a tax bill).

But if SB 2 or its House companion, HB 15, passes, this goes one better than local control. It becomes super-local control, because voters suddenly would stand atop the tax-and-spend pyramid. We would decide."

Bottom line:

"If you can't grow your local government with a 3.9 percent annual tax increase or less to avoid voter approval elections, maybe you have the wrong job."

Senator Betttencourt calls opponents arguments false.

"This is a fight between the taxpayers and the spenders," he says. "And I'll stand up for the taxpayers because they don't have a paid lobby. They don't have people on government salaries lobbying senators."

Supporters of SB 2 have the chance to speak March 14 at a public hearing before Sen. Jane Nelson's finance committee. Room E1.036 at the Capitol. You're invited. You can also watch a livestream broadcast through www.capitol.state.tx.us.

Read the entire Dallas News article to get educated and then get involved with your legislators.