Momentum - Business to Business Online Magazine MOMENTUM FEB 2018 | Page 15

Taxing Matters By: Cheryl E. Johnson, TAX from REPORT the County Tax Collector PCC Galveston Co. Tax Assessor Collector [email protected] Last year in February I presented an article “Data, Data & More Data” that included information from the Texas Comptroller’s biennial report. This report provides property and sales tax information from one Texas biennium to another but will not be available again until December. With most property owners still feeling a twinge of pain from paying 2017 property taxes, it seems appropriate to provide tax information that could be gathered locally and statewide. Property tax revenue for all local governments in Texas in 2015 was $52.2B. In 2016, Comptroller calculated tax revenue was $56B which equates to a 7% growth in property tax revenue statewide in one year. This increase exceeds the Consumer Price Index by nearly 5% (CPI for All Urban Consumers rose 2.1% from 2015 to 2016). Some legislators in the last session proposed limiting government revenue increases to CPI rather than the 4% and 8% “rollback” limit currently in place. Maybe they were right – 7% is a bit excessive and surely exceeds the increase in my paycheck last year! So what about right here? How are our county and cities measuring up? Although tax rates decreased over the last 10 years for the County and five cities, revenue actually increased measurably for most, minimally for one (Texas City) and decreased for only one (Kemah). Passage of bonds caused rates to increase in several jurisdictions (sorry I could not specify which but will take a look at debt rates for those truly interested). County & City Tax Revenue Increases (Decreases) Over 10 Years Entity County & City Tax Rate Increases (Decreases) Over 10 Years 2008-2017 As % Entity 2008-2017 As % Galveston Co. & RFL $30.4 M 26% Galveston Co. & RFL ($0.0181) (3%) Bayou Vista $247,607 50% Bayou Vista $0.0326 9% Dickinson $1.1 M 35% Dickinson $0.00001 0% Friendswood $4.3 M 32% Friendswood ($0.052351) (9%) Galveston $12.6 M 60% Galveston $0.067 14% Hitchcock $392,288 26% Hitchcock $0.02677 6% Jamaica Beach $156,744 26% Jamaica Beach ($0.057346) (23%) Kemah ($29,537) (5%) Kemah (0.072247) (27%) La Marque $835,120 26% La Marque ($0.023596) (5%) League City $13 M 42% League City ($0.065) (10%) Santa Fe $1.1 M 81% Santa Fe $0.0148 5% Texas City $288,594 1% Texas City $0.152179 36% Tiki Island $695,782 131% Tiki Island $0.152843 92% The Consumer Price Ind ex increased approximately 16% over the last 10 years which means most local governments exceeded CPI substantially. Makes for good conversation and raises questions for political candidates throughout the year and may generate some possible legislative changes if we truly care about the growth of government. 1 For the non-economists, CPI measures the change in prices paid by consumers for a representative group of products and services. It is used as a measure of inflation to determine annual cost of living adjustments to Social Security and most employee paychecks. MOMENTUM / February 2018 14