Yes, it is totally true — the City wants to raise your energy, water and property taxes by an average of $265 per year.  Sign this petition/letter to the 4 members of the Council up next for reelection — Mayor Leffingwell, and Councilmembers Cole, Martinez and Spelman.  They must end unnecessary projects and the practice of the “growth lobby” (aka the big boy developers and the real estate lobby) offloading the costs of growth onto current residents.  As we say at ChangeAustin.org, ‘welcome to Austin, but pay your own way’ and growth must pay for itself.  Sign here and pass it on, folks, or forever hold your peace on Austin’s affordability.

You can ALSO print out the Petition-No Tax Rate Hikes 2012 City Budget here, take it around and mail it back to us by September 10th, before the City Council votes on September 12.

If you feel your home has been over-valued by your county Appraisal District, make sure you get your protest forms in the mail, preferably today or tomorrow by certified mail return receipt requested.  If not, walk it in on Tuesday, and get a stamped copy.  If not, mail it registered on Tuesday.  If not, just mail it on Tuesday and take your chances!

You can include with that the “Request for Information” form here for Travis County (for Bastrop scroll to the bottom of this message), which will help you in preparation for your informal and formal hearings.

Then, please consider reviewing our slides shows on the left hand menu of our front page at ChangeAustin.org.

We now have two mock hearings scheduled below:  (Note:  if you want to do your own, we will help you!)

Property Tax Appraisal Protest Mock Hearing
Bastrop – location to be announced
Thursday, June 3rd, 6:30 pm
.

Property Tax Appraisal Protest Mock Hearing
Carver Library, 1161 Angelina, Austin
Thursday, June 17th, 6:30 pm

Comprehensive Plan – Imagine Austin
Saturday, March 27th, 3:00 – 4:00 pm*
Opal Divine’s on South Congress
3601 S. Congress, just north of Ben White

Yes, it’s called the Comprehensive Plan (Imagine Austin). It will serve as a guide to area officials for the next 40 years!

Here are the City’s questions and our translation:

City Speak:

What are the best things about Austin that need to be protected and carried forward?

ChangeAustin translation:

What cherished Austin values can be threatened to extort more tax money from us to subsidize more public infrastructure on behalf of the growth lobby? (Remember they want to double our area population in 16 years!)

City Speak:

What are the weaknesses or problems that need attention as we go forward? In other words, what is it really going to take to ensure a positive future for Austin?

ChangeAustin translation:

Maybe if we use the word “positive” they won’t complain about the dirty little secret of unfair property appraisals, together with our rate increases.

City Speak:

What are the most important values we want reflected in the city-wide vision for Austin?

ChangeAustin translation:

Ya think they mean those 40% undervalued appraisals large-scale commercial developers and speculators are getting?

Seriously folks, join us on Sat., Mar 27 (for just 1 hour!) at Opal’s to answer the city’s questionnaire or forever hold your peace!

*Note: This is a so-called “Meeting in a Box”, which you, together with neighbors or members of your organization can do on your own. We encourage you to do one, in addition to our event at Opal’s. Just get it in no later than March 31st.

Click here to find out more to find out how to do A Meeting in a Box on your own.

Hope to see ya on the 27th at Opal’s!

PS READ THE NEXT SECTION AND TAKE ACTION to get ready for your appraisals!

Click here for more info on Austin’s costs of growth.

Please forward this message and bring folks with you!

Property Tax Appraisal Protest Workshops

These workshops are very “hands on” help for homeowners who want to file more effective property tax protests this year. They will begin right after they receive their appraisals, starting on Saturday, April 17th at 10 a.m. at Huston-Tillotson University in Central Austin. They are free and open to the public.

You can also host one of your own in your neighborhood. ChangeAustin.org will send a speaker and even help advertise your workshop.

The workshops last approximately 1.5 hours.

Contact us! Tell us if you want to attend the first event at Huston-Tillotson on April 17th or if you want to hold one of your own, or both.

Send an email here to: contact@ChangeAustin.org or call Linda at 535-0989.

PS READ THE NEXT SECTION AND TAKE ACTION to get ready for your appraisals!

Click here for more info on Austin’s costs of growth.

Please forward this message and bring folks with you!

Property Tax Appraisal Protest Workshops

These workshops are very “hands on” help for homeowners who want to file more effective property tax protests this year. They will begin right after they receive their appraisals, starting on Saturday, April 17th at 10 a.m. at Huston-Tillotson University in Central Austin. They are free and open to the public.

You can also host one of your own in your neighborhood. ChangeAustin.org will send a speaker and even help advertise your workshop.

The workshops last approximately 1.5 hours.

Contact us! Tell us if you want to attend the first event at Huston-Tillotson on April 17th or if you want to hold one of your own, or both.

Send an email here to: contact@ChangeAustin.org or call Linda at 535-0989.

For years, one of our co-founders, local businessman Brian Rodgers, has been blowing the whistle on the real estate industry that is promoting growth for growth’s sake, and offloading the costs of it onto the backs of ordinary citizens.  (Brian’s the dude who led the fight to stop the Domain luxury shopping mall subsidies, which narrowly failed at the polls in 2008.  Read more at Who Killed Prop 2?) He also started a fact/data site on the Costs of Growth here.)

In August 2009, Rodgers started exposing the growth lobby’s dirty little secret — that large-scale commercial properties and raw land are being undervalued throughout the county (and state for that matter) by an average of 40%. Government taxing authorities have known this for 4 years, but so far have done nothing about it. Guess who’s picking up the tab – homeowners and renters, that’s who!

Citizens are getting set to protest unfair appraisals. We want taxing authorities (the City, County, School Districts, etc.) to fight on behalf of ordinary citizens – many of whom are being driven out of our homes.

Want to see the proof? Go to:

http://CostofGrowth.com

Contact us if you want us to come speak to your group.

And, like we said, be sure to sign up to join our email network. We never trade or sell our lists and we don’t send lots of email.

Brian Rodgers at the County Commissioners Court, July 16

The Short Story
The Travis County Commissioners Court has so far refused to call for a full audit and to file a formal challenge to the under-valuations of commercial properties in Travis County. But some smaller taxing authorities (who, will remain anonymous at the moment) have contacted us and are preparing to go after the money they’ve been missing from the big developer boys. Meanwhile, the City of Austin just released its proposed budget and — guess what — it contains a property tax increase!

The Gory Details
On Tuesday, Chief Tax Appraiser Patrick Brown promised to ‘do better next time’ while Brian Rodgers pointed out that this was ‘just not good enough’. When County Judge Biscoe stated that he wasn’t going to support a challenge or an audit, Rodgers asked him, “I presented $120 million of missing property from the rolls. I can bring you another $120 million. You just have to tell me what your breaking point is.” So far, no response.

(Notice the lobbyists for the Real Estate Council of Austin sitting near the double doors behind Brian? The system works splendidly well for its members and they were on hand to ensure that nothing changes.)

The County appears to have based their decision not to file a challenge on the County Attorney’s advice in Executive Session that the deadline for a taxing authority to challenge the under-valuations of commercial properties was June 15th. That is not the information that we have, so we’ll see. More on this subject coming soon.

Message to the thinkers at taxing authorities: Come and get your money! It’s sitting there like a beached whale at CostofGrowth.com.

Here’s the City’s budget summary proposal released on July 22.

Note to Austin City Councilmembers: the budget proposal you were given on July 22 makes no mention of the fact that there are tens of millions of dollars per year you’ve been short-changed due to under-valuations of commercial properties in Austin. There’s also no mention of one of the most popular budget cuts mentioned by regular folks at the budget charettes. That was the Domain, good for about $2 million this year alone! Oh, sorry, we’re not supposed to talk about that.

Things are happening VERY quickly — So….
in order to complete some research, we have rescheduled our meeting for Thursday, July 30, 7 pm. We apologize for the inconvenience, but hope more of you will be able to attend.

so we can plan refreshments and a larger room please. You can call us at 383-8484.

GET ACTIVE and seize the moment before it seizes you!