- City Council Adopts Lowest Property Tax Rate Since 1987 at 60 Cents Per $100 of Home Value [Houston Chronicle]
- Houston’s First Even-Branded, Wellness-Focused Hotel from InterContinental Hotels Group Planned for Shenandoah Community [Realty News Report]
- Houston Building Permits Totaled $6.1B for First 9 Months of 2015, Down 11.8% from Same Period Last Year [Houston Public Media]
- Charlie Christ of Clay Development and Construction on the State of Industrial Real Estate in Houston [Realty News Report]
- Houston Home Staging Franchise Showhomes on the Ins and Outs of Home Staging [Houston Chronicle]
- Can Houston Preserve Green Space Alongside Rapid Growth? [Houston Public Media]
- The Nine Steps for Making a Better City, According to NRDC’s Shelley Poticha [The Urban Edge]
- The Similarities Between Drake’s New Video ‘Hotline Bling’ and James Turrell’s Light Installations [Hyperallergic]
Photo of CenterPointEnergy and Esperson Tower: elnina via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Headlines
“Average homeowner will still pay more due to rising appraisals despite savings” – By definition that’s a tax INCREASE! You might be reducing the tax RATE – but you’re still paying MORE TAXES! SPIN SPIN SPIN
Curb your enthusiasm, property owners. The HISD rate didn’t change at all, and that’s the biggest fraction of the tax bill.
“City property taxes make up only a portion of residents’ tax bills. The single largest recipient of many local residents’ property taxes is the Houston Independent School District, which raised its tax rate by 3 cents in 2013 and by 1 cent last year.”
Right. I will have more sympathy for the lamentations of the politicians when they can stop throwing money into the giant gaping sinkhole of fiduciary mismanagement that is HISD.
@buried lede, what, exactly, would you cut from the HISD budget? Keep in mind that the HISD tax rate is almost 40 cents lower than many of the other school districts in the area. HISD does a decent job on the operating budget, they aren’t exactly throwing away much there. HISD could do a better job of managing projects, but that’s true of many businesses as well.
HISD is actually quite stingy with their operating budgets and cuts all corners possible (some non school facilities don’t have AC). It’s their construction projects that are way over budget and horribly mismanaged. I can’t believe they had the gall to blame it on inflation.
HISD has lost what little financial credibility it had with me after flubbing the last bond money approved by voters for construction projects.
.
One could argue that a bunch of school administrators would be financially inept on its face – but they really do reach for the stars of ineptitude. Free tip to HISD: hire quality financial people for your financial projects. Until then, I’m not voting for any HISD bond issue.
Single bid contracts are inexcusable at that scale.