“I have voted for every park, every library, all the school improvements, for light rail, for anything that will make this city better. But now I can’t afford to live here anymore. I’ll protest my appraisal notice, but that’s not enough. Someone needs to step in and address the big picture.”
The big picture is that she kept voting to make her housing more expensive by increasing her property taxes, yet somehow she assumed somebody else would pay the bill.
It's almost like actions have consequences.
I concede that one issue is one of rising appraisals that would raise taxes even without an increase in tax rates. So voting for tax increases isn't just--and possibly not even the major--cause of her rising taxes. It's rate times value. She contributed to the former.
But she did contribute to pushing her home's taxes up. And she should recognize her role in the big picture.
