Posted on 06/07/2009 10:20:11 PM PDT by anymouse
(snip)
The lesson moved into a discussion about Stafford, a small city in Fort Bend County that hasn’t levied a property tax for 14 years.
Field listened as others questioned how a community — called home by more than 20,000 people — could function without them.
“When you say zero property tax, people don’t believe you,” said Field, who has lived in Stafford for more than two decades. “I still don’t see how it works. I just reap the benefits. I don’t have to understand it.”
Stafford stopped levying property taxes in 1995, making it the largest of the less than a dozen cities in Texas to do so.
(snip)
Relying on sales tax revenue alone, Stafford has managed to pay for city services, lower its debt, accumulate a reserve of about $10 million, construct a new convention center and build a police and fire complex in the past six years.
(snip)
Even today, while many cities across the country are slashing budgets and cutting services because of the recession, Stafford continues to grow. City officials are even optimistic about paying off the city’s $2 million bond debt by 2014.
(snip)
Councilman Cecil Willis says the mayor watches every penny. It’s not unusual for a city employee to wear several hats or for council to debate the purchase of pencils and light bulbs, he said. The city also has adopted a pay-as-you-go philosophy for projects to avoid debt, he said.
“We’re just living within our means like most families,” Willis said. “We don’t buy extravagant things, and the staff has bought into that and so have residents. It’s a partnership.”
(Excerpt) Read more at chron.com ...
Note Stafford was the home base for Tom DeLay.
I retired from the TI site in Stafford, Texas.
I would rethink my opposition to human cloning if we could clone the town council of Stafford, TX, and install them in every city in America.
I’m thinking home values must be holding steady in Stafford.
The city may not levy a property tax, but does the county or school district? My property taxes on my 110k home in College Station run about $2600/yr with about $600 being city, $500 being county, and $1500 being school district. So, not having to pay city property taxes would be nice, but if that made the total property tax bill $2100 instead of $2600, while that would be zero city property taxes, it wouldn’t be zero property taxes.
TI = Texas Instruments?
Better hope they don’t study NC, where the Dem-controlled state legislature slipped through a provision a few years ago, withholding state sales tax distribution from municipalities that do not levy a property tax.
Zero property taxes?! Dang. That sure beats $12K up here in north-central Texas.
Wow. Mine’s .63 per $100 for county and .10 for municipal. School district is included in county. Garbage collection is included in municipal.
We do have a few socialists (german emmigrants) who forever talk about the tax structure back in Europe; I always tell them if Germany is such a shan-gri-la; they should go back. Constant battle between the left minority who wants to spend savings and have taxes, and everybody else.
Only down side I see is that you only get what you pay for; of course only right. We don't have many services you all would think barbaric, but we like it. Another drawback is our community tends to draw a certain crowd of undesireables who live on a shoestring, end up on state services; good and bad. Cheap to live in our community with no taxes whatsoever.
Stafford does not allow any new churches to be built in their city, and does not allow any existing churches to expand. They say that having tax exempt sites chokes out their opportunity for revenue.
, but does the county or school district?
That’s a great question and hope it gets answered. The county not the city where I live has gone completely nuts; raising real estate taxes every two years.
It's in the article. They do pay County and School taxes. I used to live in their neighboring city and worked at the newspaper covering Stafford when it was just a wide spot in the road. They formed their own school district and withdrew from the Ft. Bend Unified School District over some dispute. (It could have been football, but that was back in 1982, so I don't remember.)
Stafford also has the lion's share of business so they get revenue there. They always ran a conservative ship. I don't know how their school taxes compare with Fort Bend, but I imagine they would be lower. And their county taxes would be the same as everybody else in the county, so it's a net gain for the property owner.
I believe that Nebraska forbids the State from borrowing money. And they have a Unicameral legislature. I’d like to see both items in Michigan.
Yes.
Numerous smaller communities in Texas have no city property tax. Doesn’t mean there’s no property tax, though, since both school districts and counties are independent taxing authorities, and the overall property tax can still be quite high.
Neat.
I’ve always been fascinated with TI’s innovations.
Another thing that impressed me was the effort they put into their part documentation.
Very cool.
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