Texas looks to have at least the 7th highest local property tax burden in the nation. This is according to an effective property tax rate of 1.81% per WalletHub.com or the share of property taxes paid to owner- occupied housing value of 1.69% per the Tax Foundation. While some claim this high burden is because Texas does not have a personal income tax, the two sources above show other states with no income tax tend to have a more competitive property tax burden. Texas’s high burden is from excessive spending.
The Texas Constitution prohibits the state government from levying a property tax, so all Texas property taxes are levied at the local level. These local taxes have far outgrown taxpayers’ ability to pay them, as their growth has exceeded population plus inflation, increasing their tax burden over time. Property taxes are an inefficient type of tax based on arbitrary appraisal determinations and high administrative costs. They can be more regressive than other forms of taxation as they punish the poor more because of the compounding of tax payments annually over time and they can keep them from getting or push them out of a home. They also keep Texas from being as competitive with other states.