The Property Tax Racket

Yet further evidence that Public Servants exist only to "serve" themselves. The Houston Chronicle article "Tax protests soaring....." was interesting reading for a number of reasons, most notably that HCAD (Harris County Appraisal District) not only continued their decade-long abuse of homeowners, but portrayed themselves as the good guys and taxpayers as bad guys.

Chief Appraiser Jim Robinson brags about HCAD's generosity to us taxpayers, claiming that “Nearly 41 percent of the residences we reduced the value of; we didn't change about 41 percent; and we increased about 18 percent.” His bad grammar aside, it's amazing that in the third consecutive year of the Real Estate bust, he should be so proud of offering no decrease to 41% of us Schlubs, while jacking up values for another 18%. Unspoken is that HCAD offered far less to the 41% that did get a decrease than what they deserved.

Robinson then summed up the problem as he sees it, stating simply that "People do not like paying taxes". That's Government-speak for "taxpayers are simple souls who look out only for themselves, and do not realize how lucky they are to have discriminating Public Servants like myself to guide them". Perhaps Robinson should pay more attention to the data if he hopes to have a more nuanced perspective. The article documents that tax protests have tripled since 1999 to 353,000 through mid-June of 2009 alone. The duration and the 200% increase pretty much correspond with Harris County's millenial tax orgy. Not that he doesn't have company; his pals in local, state and federal government have pretty much kept pace.

Given his exceptional regard for himself, do you suppose Robinson give even a moment's thought to the possibility that HCAD has assessed too much? And while he's pondering that one, I wonder if Robinson has given any thought to the millions HCAD squanders defending themselves against the tax protestors? Assuming that HCAD receives no additional protests this year and that each protest takes at least 1/2 hour to process (including the time of the clerks, appraisers and appeals board members that must touch it), that's at least 175 thousand man-hours of work for HCAD employees.

And let's not forget that opposite HCAD are 353,000 homeowners, spending on average 8 hours to investigate and document their claims, file the protest and make the trip(s) to the HCAD office as necessary. I'm erring on the side of caution here. My own tax protests take about 16 man-hours, so I simply cut that figure in half. That's 2.8 million man-hours of lost productivity.

Multiply those figures by 75, and you've got an idea of the waste nationwide, with thousands of make-work jobs for people battling to confiscate more and more of the Taxpayer's dwindling wealth while bureaucrats spend like drunken sailors, and Taxpayer's fighting a losing battle to prevent it. Stop me when this sounds like America's relationship with the IRS.

Of course, Harris County could have prevented all of this by assessing property values fairly, but they're not about fairness; they're about perpetuating the government gravy train endlessly. If you think I'm exaggerating, merely contemplate that Harris County reduces the assessment of at least 90% of all protestors every year. Isn't that proof enough that they consciously overcharge homeowners?

As homeowner Pauline Steffen was quoted in the Chronicle article: "It's a racket. It's getting to where they are going to tax people right out of their homes". Racket indeed. There is increasingly little to distinguish many of our public servants from Organized Crime, except that Criminals don't insult your intelligence by telling you all the good they're doing for you, much less belittle you for complaining while they steal all your money.