Taxparency Texas

Why Taxparency Texas?

Texas property taxpayers do not know that higher school taxes paid because of property value growth benefit the State’s General Revenue fund, not school districts.*

“Clearly, there are points where the state is benefiting from appraisal value increases and schools aren’t,”   said state Rep. Jimmie Don Aycock, R-Killeen, the outgoing chairman of the Public Education Committee. 09-28-2016 Texas Tribune

*Because school districts are held to a certain amount of funding per pupil, when property tax payments increase due to rising property values, the state just sends less money to the school district, so the school district does not realize ongoing benefit to its operating budget from higher property values.

We think that Taxpayers should know…

As their property taxes increase, the State’s share of funding public education continues to decrease, leaving local taxpayers paying for a larger percent of education funding.

State vs Local Share of Education Funding

How can this happen?

The answer is found in the Legislative Budget Board (LBB) Fiscal Size-up report for 2016-2017.

“… growth in local property values is projected to result in a decrease in state cost of about $4.25 billion for the 2016–17 biennium.” Page 227

The LBB report goes on to also state that:

“In the 2016–17 biennium, recapture revenue is anticipated to grow by $1,150 million, and Property Tax Relief Fund revenue is anticipated to grow by $180 million, which in turn decreases the anticipated draw from General Revenue Funds by a total of $1,330 million to support the FSP.” Page 228

Where did the money go?

Since the state reduced its contribution to education by the value of the new local property tax revenue of $4.25 billion that resulted from property value growth, the state used its general fund on other state obligations that included the following as demonstrated on Page 228.