the Controversial Committee Report
“We don’t raise sacred cows...we just butcher them.”
“Is There Representation for Tax Relief?”
Well, dear readers, how happy are you with you residential appraisal from the Dallas Central Appraisal District? Did your property value increase again this year?
Since the DCAD board is appointed by local taxing jurisdictions, there is very little recourse on expressing your frustration with them. Your primary recourse with DCAD is to file a protest and hope an Appraisal Review Board member will be of assistance and act favorably to reduce your appraised value. After all, the ARB member is the final decision maker in this process.
Of course, there is another major and significant step which should be considered and taken…contact your local governmental taxing authority to reduce their current tax rate. After all, the DCAD does not set or collect your residential property taxes. The tax rates are set by your local elected officials — city council members and school board trustees, etc.
Considering all that is going on in the State and nation, there has been very little positive relief expressed or acted on by elected politicians. So, it is time for the citizenry to step up and remind elected officials, who set the tax rates, that they are responsible to tax payers…not the governmental bureaucracy they serve on.
Here is the first salvo (see below letter) which the CCR has fired seeking tax relief for Irving home owners. A similar letter has also been sent to the Irving ISD. Without letting your elected officials know and understand your concerns, there cannot be any change. And by not acting, one could expect to pay more in property taxes for 2020 than last year.
Isn’t it time for you to become active in this issue?
…………………………………….Mark Holbrook
………………………………………………………………….
May 19, 2020
Sent via: e-mail
Mayor Rick Stopfer and City Council Members
℅ Irving City Hall
825 W. Irving Blvd.
Irving, TX 75060
Dear Mayor and Council Members:
While I am confident this will not be the only notice you may receive regarding this topic, I would like to register my initial thoughts and concerns.
As you are probably aware, the State and now the Dallas Central Appraisal District has done very little, or nothing, to genuinely assist or render true concern for residential property owners during this horrible pandemic era. My appraised value, as I’m sure hundreds of thousands of others, has increased…mine to the apparent maximum percentage allowable.
What does all this mean to me and other Irving citizens? Realizing, of course, the amount of taxes to be paid will be determined by each of the taxing districts — city, school district, hospital district, community college district, etc. And even if the city maintains their current tax rate for residential homeowners, we will still be paying more taxes, again, this year.
Therefore, this burden of homeowners having to pay more in taxes for the upcoming year rests significantly in your laps. And if history repeats, the city council’s prior actions, when establishing the tax rate and budget decisions, will not be favorable to Irving homeowners. It seems there currently has been only one council member who has attempted to do right regarding the decreasing of taxes for Irving homeowners!
What can you do? Hopefully, the council’s upcoming actions will actually consider what is going on in the city and nation. (If you check, Irving ranks second only to Dallas in the total number of COVID-19 reported cases in the county.) Now is not the time to establish new or crony inspired projects. Now is not the time to expand bureaucratic power-point projects. Now is not the time, to once again, disregard your impact on what the ordinary and voting citizens of Irving need and desperately require…genuine tax relief.
What is required? It should be quite simple to see. The city council needs to actually reduce their operating budget, take care of basic and essential items only (police, fire, etc.), and reduce the proposed tax rate in order for citizens to actually pay less than what they paid last year. To do otherwise will only place another insurmountable financial burden on Irving citizens and voters during this difficult personal and financial period.
The ball is in your court. Are you representing the citizens of Irving, or the status quo of a governmental, free spending bureaucracy?
Sincerely,
Mike E. Howard
……………………………………………………………………………….
Ringtail Productions Limited
LAWYER STUFF: Dylan’s Ruffings, the Controversial Committee Report, ZAP! and the O-file are published by Mark Holbrook who everyone knows -- except for a couple apathetic slugs whose IQ equals their shoe size -- is Mike Howard. Any reference to persons deceased is purely out of respect. For those still living, draw your own conclusions. Get in line if you want to sue or complain. Better yet, call someone who might really care. Letters written must meet at least one of the following criteria: humorous, cat kicking, or not libelous. Simple requirements for simple readers...that’s our philosophy. “Cool and the Geezer” is syndicated by Ringtail Productions Limited and all rights are reserved. The CCR and ZAP! are printed and issued only when local political idiocy becomes laughable. Permission is granted to copy, fax, or e-mail this report to a friend, associate, or someone you really don’t like. The “candid” conversation reports have been injected with fabricated nouns, verbs, conjunctions, adverbs, modifiers and maybe a few dangling participles. All previous reports, butchered sacred cows and blog responses are posted at:
First “cat kicked” in 1984 Contact: markholbrook13@yahoo.com May 25, 2020
