While our City and County Leaders issued misleading statements and threatened 

	Diana Miller attending committee hearing

to cut fire and safety, the Texas Senate voted to move  Property Tax Relief Legislation forward. The proposed Legislation does not cut City nor County budgets. It merely sets a manageable limit to annual increased revenue at 5% before an automatic roll back election is required. While homeowners and Texas businesses have had to cut their budgets in order to meet rapidly increasing property tax bills, local government has had the luxury of unbridled spending.

I had the opportunity to speak to Senator Bettencourt, sponsor of the bill, during a recess at the committee hearing. I discussed the documentation I submitted to the committee in support of the Property Tax Relief bill.

Mayor Zimmerman seated far right;  at the hearing to oppose Property Tax Relief

The City of Sugar Land testimony before the Senate committee contained the following statement "SB2 will threaten our City's ability to properly fund Public Safety which is the largest item in the City of Sugar Land budget. Fire, Police & EMS account for almost half of Sugar Land's budget". 

According to the recently published City budget, Public safety is 14% while Construction gets a whopping 28%.  

On March 7, 2017, the City of Sugar Land issued the results of their audit report findings. "The total net position at the end of fiscal year is $949 million... Net property values grew 8.5 percent." In the prior year, the City ended with a $1.7 million surplus. It's time to give homeowners a break.