Mayor Turner Looks To Property Tax Increases To Fund Recovery

Mayor Turner
Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner Speaking At Bisnow's 2016 Houston State Of The Market Event

This fall, Mayor Sylvester Turner will ask City Council to approve a temporary 8.9% property tax hike to help fund Houston's recovery from Hurricane Harvey. The proposal, which will reach a formal vote in about a month, would increase the property tax rate from 58.64 cents to 63.87 cents per $100 of appraised value. The mayor is allowed to proposed an increase beyond the so-called revenue cap by declaring a state of emergency, allowing the city to collect an additional $113M for one year.

The city's voter-imposed revenue cap limits the annual growth of Houston's property tax revenue growth to the combined rates of inflation and population growth, or 4.5%, whichever is lower.

Turner's proposal comes after months of debate over the property tax rate at the Texas Capitol in Austin, where Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed four new pieces of property tax legislation into law. Notably, SB2, which would trigger automatic elections if property tax rates spiked, did not make it through the special session.

Continue reading this story with a free account

Log in or register
Sign up for more articles like this
Subscribe to Bisnow's Houston Newsletters
Related Stories

Cross Ocean Partners, Fuller Realty Acquire 829K SF Houston Office Campus

Trammell Crow Starts Phase Of 2M SF Industrial Park: The Houston Deal Sheet

Oncology Company Expands Footprint At Hines' Life Sciences Campus

Astrodome Conservancy Solicits Redevelopment Ideas

Sugar Land Town Square Secures Fortune 500 Lease: The Houston Deal Sheet

Houston CRE Firms Turn To Contractors As They Look To Scale

The Revitalization Of Sugar Creek On The Lake, A Premier Waterfront Property In Greater Houston

City Block Sold For New Houston Center Parking Garage

Texas Pauses Data Center Power Connections, Which Could Speed Up Rapid Development

Houston's Generation Park Lands Another $2.3B Pharma Manufacturing Investment

Developer To Replace Coworking Space With Industrial: The Houston Deal Sheet

SpaceX, Tesla To Spend $16.8B Building First Phase Of 100M SF Chip Factory