From the President

It will come as no surprise to Texas county judges and commissioners that there is a general push across the state to reduce property taxes. What may be surprising is that this pressure comes even though The Tax Foundation, a national policy research group, ranks Texas as 43rd among all states in total state and local tax burden. And further, StateMaster, a national statistical database, ranks Texas as last in state taxes paid per capita and in total tax burden per gross domestic product.
This movement to lower or limit the increases in property taxes is being felt across the nation. However, there is a widely held opinion in this state that county tax revenues are too dependent on the ad valorum levy. Indeed, Texas counties are long overdue for broader alternative revenue sources that would shift the majority of the revenue burden off of property taxes and towards other revenue sources that focus on the use of discretionary income such as sales taxes or user impact fees.
In this month’s issue, Editor Julie Anderson begins a series that takes an in-depth look at the current revenue streams for Texas counties and the options we as locally elected officials have in utilizing non-traditional revenue sources.
In my opinion, the greatest pressure we see in expenditure demands comes from the unfunded mandates from the Texas Legislature. For as long as I can remember, county judges and commissioners have worked with limited success to encourage our elected representatives in Austin to provide additional revenues for each additional service they require us to provide. So far, between 70 to 80 percent of our annual expenditures go to cover the costs of mandated services. We will continue our efforts to put a constitutional amendment before the voters that would prohibit unfunded mandates. But, that has as much a chance as a steer surviving a trip to the meat packing plant.
Another sort of pressure for additional revenue comes from people who move out of cities and into the unincorporated areas of our counties. I get calls all the time from new county residents who set up residence outside of urban and suburban areas with an expectation of services and protections they are used to receiving from the cities they used to live in. Most recently the rise in fuel costs has many rural residents wishing they could pay to have their garbage picked up at municipal rates. Even in normal times, the requests for “quality-of-life” services