In a recent facebook post Campaign for Liberty Regional Director Kelli Cook pointed out that 237 Texas county commissioners courts have granted homestead exemption to their tax payers and that Montgomery County is one of few that have not approved any homestead exemption. This is the same Commissioners Court that has granted a series of tax abatements to billionaire developer and Lord of the RUD Dirk Laukien and once granted an abatement to a fraudulent fuel distributor that was ordered to make $18 million in restitution, $8 million in penalties and $2.7 million in fees to the State.
Texas law allows a local option General Homestead exemption of up to 20%, an Over 65 exemption and others including up 100% for service disabled veterans. The Court can also grant exemptions to other disabled persons at their discretion.
County Citizen wanted to see what other counties are offering in comparison Montgomery County and the results based on a simple web search and a few phone calls may serve as a basis for more taxpayer dissatisfaction with the court. While the results are not surprising they will probably disappoint most taxpayers who have been footing the bill for otherwise generous corporate abatements.
Since county salaries have been under taxpayer scrutiny in recent months we thought to include the salary of the CEO of each entity in the survey, reader can decide if there is any meaningful correlation between that salary and the magnitude of exemptions granted.
Review the results.
| TAXING COUNTY/OTHER | 2016 TAX RATE | HS | OV65 | DV | DP | Population | CEO Salary | SOURCE |
| El Paso | 0.452694 | 5000 | 20,000 | 100% | 20,000 | 836,000 | $87,578 | SOURCE |
| Nueces | 0.304092 | 20% | 62,500 | 100% | 62,500 | 360,000 | $96,975 | SOURCE |
| Fort Bend | 0.458 | 20% | 100,000 | 0 | 100,000 | 716,000 | $127,231 | SOURCE |
| Brazoria | 0.457405 | 20% | 100,000 | 100% | 100,000 | 215,000 | $132,961 | SOURCE |
| Collin | 0.208395 | 5% | 30,000 | 0 | 20,000 | 914,000 | $141,430 | SOURCE |
| Montgomery | 0.4767 | 0000 | 35000 | 0000 | 0000 | 550,000 | $164,745 | SOURCE |
| Galveston | 0.546247 | 20% | 60,000 | 100% | 60,000 | 325,000 | $167,400 | SOURCE |
| Harris | 0.41656 | 20% | 160,000 | 100% | 160,000 | 4,200,000 | $175,538 | SOURCE |
| Conroe | 0.42 | 0 | 15,000 | 0 | 7500 | 50,000 | $184,000 | SOURCE |
| Woodlands Township | 0.023 | 0 | 25,000 | 0 | 25,000 | 100,000 | $260,000 | SOURCE |
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