Precinct 2 Commissioner Jay Millikin, who represents Comal County on the board of the Alamo Area Council of Governments, presented a report on the tax rates of 14 counties in this area to his fellow commissioners.

 Of those counties, Comal County's 2005 tax rate of 35.37 cents per $100 of assessed value is higher only than Gillespie County's rate of 30.51 cents and Bexar County's rate of 33.19 cents.

 But if Comal County's percent homestead exemption is taken into account, its tax rate becomes the lowest of the 14 counties.

 One county, Karnes, is pegged at 79.94 cents, just below the state-mandated maximum of 80 cents per $100. Two others, Frio and Atascosa, are also near the maximum, at 77.19 cents and 76.09 cents, respectively.

 Millikin did the study as the county prepares to face a May 13 rollback election in which voters will decide whether to allow a 2-cent tax increase adopted by commissioners this past September.

 The increase, to 35.37 cents, is 12.5 percent above the effective rate for 2004. A county is allowed to increase taxes by up to 8 percent without voter recourse. After the increase, Comal County newspaper publisher Douglas Kirk launched a successful rollback petition drive.

 Now, with the election approaching, the county finds itself in a political climate in which the state is grappling with appraisal caps, property tax limits and finding a fair way to fund education and reduce state reliance on property taxes — an ironic situation in a county whose tax rate is in the bottom 5 percent of all Texas counties and whose elected officials now face a rollback after years of refusing to raise the tax rate incrementally.

 "This is part of our effort to educate the public about what they will be voting on in the rollback election," Millikin told the other commissioners as he projected a pie chart that showed where property taxes go in this county.

 The largest portion of a local property tax bill — 71 percent — goes to schools. The lowest goes to fire and emergency medical protection. Comal County gets 15 percent of the property taxes collected in this county.

  "If you're a state legislator, where do you look to solve the property tax problem?" Millikin asked. "The answer is school taxes."

 Gov. Rick Perry has called a special session of the legislature next month to address the property tax/school funding issue.

 Millikin pointed out that, with the homestead exemption, the county taxes on a home worth $100,000 in this county are $281.45. In Atascosa County, that figure is $738.05.

 "After you get through all the mechanics, you can see what that rate is," Millikin said. "We shine compared to all these other counties. The five of us sitting up here and our predecessors are very happy to be on the left (lowest side) of that column."

 Precinct 4 Commissioner Jan Kennady, who is leading an effort to put forth the county's tax message and helped form a political action committee called "Save Our Services," said the real difficulty is in getting that information before voters — and getting them out to support the county on May 13.

  "I wish we could drop this information at every residence in the county," Kennady said.

 Precinct 1 Commissioner Jack Dawson, acting as county judge for the vacationing Danny Scheel, agreed.

 "This really says it all right here," Dawson said. "Yet some people think their taxes are too high and they want a rollback. What can they be thinking?"

 Millikin said anyone with any questions could ask Atascosa County Judge Diana Bautista, whose tax rate, at 76.09 cents, is more than double this county's.

 "When I mentioned to her that we were having a rollback election, she just said to me, 'What's the problem?'" Millikin said. "So I ask the public in Comal County, 'What's the problem?'"

 Kennady thought she knew the problem — but didn't have a solution.

 "We're not getting the message out," she said.

Article provided by the Herald Zeitung.

CONTACT: Commissioner Jay Millikin
ph: (830) 221-1100
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