In last week’s city council meeting, State Representative Steve Toth urged city leaders to pass a resolution asking Governor Abbott to close the Texas border, saying “at some point we have to do what the federal government refuses to do.”

 

He pointed to recent statistics showing 177,000 children crossed the border in just one year. He said their parents are missing which means they are coming here with narco terrorists or gangs, and then being sold into sex trafficking. According to Toth, the state is now spending billions on the border, but no matter how much is being spent, we will continue to struggle and we need to close the border.

 

Councilman Ted Fletcher questioned Toth about eliminating the appraised value system for property taxes. Toth said he has a bill to do that. “The Comptroller will tell you it costs two billion dollars every year to run appraisal districts and 80% of that money is legal fees, defending the appraisal system against lawsuits from major corporations,” Toth said.

 

Toth favors a system based on the purchase price, adjusted over time by a CPI. He said there are about 30 states that use a similar method for appraisals and asked council to support a resolution eliminating the appraised value system.

 

In the September 13 meeting, council also approved a slightly lower tax rate of $0.1449 per $100 valuation, compared with last year’s rate of $0.1477. However, the county has significantly increased appraisal values across the board and many homeowners reported a 10-15% increase over last year.

 

Councilman Charlie Bradt said he completely supported both resolutions that Toth recommends.