Mayor White’s property value went from $2.2 million last year to $1.2 million this year…because he lives in a floodplain.
[The mayor’s] office said he didn’t ask for a reduction, the county just gave it to him.
Wow! That’s not something you hear every day.
The other person in KHOU’s story, who also lives in a floodplain, used Mayor White’s appraisal reduction as an example when he was protesting his own property taxes:
Wilson didn’t get the mayor’s 32-percent discount.
Instead he got 5 percent.
“Five percent is all? That’s great,” he said. “Usually I get it raised every year 10 percent to 20 percent. I felt like I was a winner.”
Wilson estimates he’ll now save $1,200 a year in property taxes. And since FEMA just recently put hundreds of additional lots in the floodway, Wilson believes those owners have a case to lower their taxes at least as much or perhaps more.
If it works for Mayor White, who didn’t even have to protest to get his appraisal reduced, it should work for regular folks. Right?
“You know if the mayor is going to get a 32-percent reduction, then everybody that’s in the floodplain should get one also,” Wilson said. “I don’t begrudge the mayor for getting that reduction, because we all pay too much in property taxes. We all should have it.”
Amen.
(Old) Forum Comments (16)
