To fellow elected officials of Liberty County,
It is my honor and privilege to serve alongside you as a public servant in my capacity as a member of Liberty City Council. As elected officials, we have been given the sacred charge of being stewards of the precious resources granted to us by hard working taxpayers, and to utilize those resources for enhancing our communities and protecting the liberties of our constituents. Thank you for your willingness to step into this role and for your diligent public service.
As a candidate for office and more recently as a councilman, I have had numerous conversations with constituents about their many issues with local government. One of the most frequent concerns I’ve heard surrounds tax rates. As you know, property taxes have soared and appraisals are seemingly out of control. Our constituents are fearful that high property appraisals will continue to result in even higher tax bills. Some have already been forced out of business and even out of their homes.
As a local property owner, you know the burden of high taxes yourself. If property taxes weren’t enough to worry about, we are also facing soaring prices in the grocery store and at the pump. We can’t do much about the supply chain or crippling inflation, but we do have an obligation to fight increases and even abolish taxes wherever we are able to. It’s always great when we can get more bang for our constituents’ buck, but well-paid administrators, fancy public buildings, and lush amenities don’t clothe and feed our children or pay our medical bills.
Our constituents know that as their elected representatives, it is our responsibility to determine how much our respective entities will spend and to set the tax rates that will generate much of the revenue to fund that spending. To that end, I am confident that each of us is currently neck deep in this arduous and complex budgeting process and that we are all taking the increased appraisal values into account as we seek to set (and hopefully lower) our tax rate. I hope we each remember that any tax rate we set that is higher than the “no-new-revenue” rate amounts to a tax increase. Ultimately, it is not enough that our tax rate is just lower than last year’s. We must do whatever it takes to keep more of our constituents’ money in their pockets.
I recognize that this seemingly impossible challenge of reducing revenue comes while we are also facing skyrocketing operating costs. If these were our household budgets, we’d move Heaven and Earth to make the numbers work. We should be just as radically devoted to fiscal restraint as we steward other peoples’ money.
Our constituents are suffering. They are in need of immediate relief. The property tax system is broken and maybe one day our State Legislature will get around to working on that. But today, we public servants are in the sole and unique position to grant the relief our neighbors need and I hope we will all be willing to do whatever it takes to serve them well.
For Liberty,
City Councilman Tommy Brents
Proud of the much needed stand you are taking for all of our citizens. THANK YOU!!
What a breath of fresh air. I hope more elected officials embrace this way of thinking.
I hope that tax relief and electricity relief is in the works. My light bill up to $500 a month… that is too high!! As with taxes.. I don’t mind paying my fair share but being gouged is another thing….
Thank You Tommy Brents for trying to keep property Tax at a rate we can afford. I know a couple of
People that have moved out of Liberty County because of these higher Tax Rates.
Mr brents is only voicing his concern and asking for them to act on it. The only wy to stop this is to form a group of voters in all of liberty county and Texas asking everyone running for office what they plan on doing about the tax inequalities, and vote accordingly. Im ready if you are.
They all say they are going to lower taxes and we’ve yet to see it happen!!
Great message. Tax rates need to be lowered to reflect the runaway increases in property values. And all council members and county commissioners should take a pledge to never vote to issue certificates of obligation. They do that to take the decision of borrowing money OUT of the hands of the taxpayers. They fear a bond issue will be unsuccessful so they bypass that and use certificates of obligation.
Dissolve the hospital district … Now!
I wish we could get the same attitude and opinion adopted by some of the local school boards as well! Break it down and some of the local school districts are bleeding down the residents in their districts to attempt to recovery lost (i.e. mismanaged) funds through the taxation of property owners in the district(s). All taxes aren’t just county taxes when we have to write that check at the end of the year.