Vote Yes on Proposition 3

Dallasblog.com | Tom Pauken:

“I encourage all Texans to vote yes in support of Proposition 3 on November 6. We need to protect our homeowners from the negative impact of skyrocketing appraisal values.”

Ed Cognoski responds:

Vote No on Proposition 3.

Tom Pauken is upset that his property taxes are going up. Then, he ought to vote out of office the politicians responsible for setting tax rates. Instead, he wants to mess with free market forces by artificially capping property appraisals.

In a fair tax system, two houses with equal market values would be taxed the same amount. But not in Tom Pauken's world. He wants to cap appraisal increases at an arbitary 10%, no matter how much a property might be worth. Eventually, the homeowners of two houses of equal market value could be paying wildly different taxes because of this artificial interference with the free market.

I can't imagine Tom Pauken recommending that government adopt wage and price controls. Yet his recommendation to cap appraisals on house values amounts to that. The distortions caused won't be noticeable at first, but sooner or later someone else will have to clean up Tom Pauken's mess and restore market sanity to the appraisal process. Vote No on Proposition 3.

P.S. Tom Pauken continues to block me from posting comments on Dallas Blog.