Property taxes are based on property values. Further, Texans have voted to support schools by property taxes, not income taxes. However, there is no cap on taxes, which allows for increases in excess of inflation. That is one item to be addressed this session.
The rollback rate provides the taxing unit approximately the same amount of tax revenue it spent the previous year for day-to-day operations plus an extra 8-percent cushion, and sufficient funds to pay its debts in the coming year. For school districts, the cushion is eight cents per $100 of property value, not 8 percent. If a unit adopts a tax rate that is higher than the rollback rate, voters in the unit can circulate a petition calling for an election to roll back (or limit) the size of the tax increase. For school districts, no petition is required. The school board calls for an election to ratify the adopted rate if the adopted rate exceeds the rollback rate.
http://www.window.state.tx.us/taxinfo/proptax/tx96_295/rates.html
It’s not just a Texas or california thing. Here in what is claimed to be a conservative suburb in ohio, the soccer moms here have a sense of entitlement that would make an inner city welfare queen blush. These doughy broads will call you every name in the book if you suggest they should pay full freight for the kids they brought into the world to play games and/or be in clubs at school. No...they would force people like me who ate a lot of mac annd cheese to send my kid to a private school to carry their water.