Senator Eliot Shapleigh - El Paso, Texas

I'll have to admit that Texas Gov. Rick Perry's Task Force on Appraisal Reform isn't as bad as I thought it would be.

It's worse.

The task force, which held its final meeting on Tuesday in Austin, is expected to issue recommendations in a report late this year, panel Chairman Tom Pauken said.

Oh, boy -- can't wait.

The task force is considering changes that could:

* Lower property taxes but raise sales taxes. That probably would benefit affluent homeowners with high-dollar homes while hurting low- and moderate-income Texans.

* Needlessly complicate the operations of local government by dramatically altering the tax base and imposing a revenue cap on the amount that local government budgets can grow each year without voter approval. Sufficient legal mechanisms already are in place for voters to roll back taxes via an election.

* Lower (from 10 percent to 5 percent) the cap on annual increases in residential property appraisals for tax purposes. That would further distort the sound, long-established principle of levying taxes uniformly based on fair market value. It would shift a greater share of the tax burden to those whose houses aren't rapidly increasing in value.

Perry, who was backed by only 39 percent of Texas voters in a shaky re-election win on Nov. 7, has pledged to address "appraisal creep" in the legislative session that begins Jan. 9. The phrase refers to increases in property appraisals that could result in higher property taxes even if tax rates are not increased.

I foresee much more bad than good coming out of Perry's ill-conceived crusade to "fix" a property appraisal system that isn't broken.

Affluent taxpayers who least need help probably will be most helped by whatever changes are made. And low- and moderate-income Texans who could use some help are most likely to be hurt. Any changes that magnify the impact of property appraisal caps will create a more inequitable system in which some taxpayers are subsidized at the expense of others.

By the way, the appraisal reform issue appears to be coming to a head at a time when housing prices are starting to slump. Some Tarrant County homeowners, particularly those trying to sell their houses, could soon be lamenting that their property appraisals are going down instead of up.

Appraisal creep could be slowing to a crawl.

Appraisal district figures released in July showed that 58 percent of single-family houses in Tarrant County had no change in value this year. Values decreased for 5.5 percent of homes. Of the 36.5 percent of homes that increased in value, only about one in 25 rose more than 10 percent.

Local government could suffer as a result of misguided appraisal reform legislation.

At a meeting in Dallas, Pauken suggested the possibility of eliminating property taxes and replacing them with a larger sales tax, or replacing lost local revenue with a half-cent sales tax, according to a Star-Telegram report.

Does Pauken have any clue how much sales taxes might have to be raised to replace lost property taxes?

For example, the city of Fort Worth's general fund budget is projected to receive $291.6 million in property tax revenues for the fiscal year that began Oct. 1. But the penny of sales tax that goes to the general fund budget is expected to produce only $96.1 million in revenues. The sales tax therefore would have to be raised an additional 3 cents per $1 of taxable items to compensate for the lost property tax revenues. That means Fort Worth residents would pay a total sales tax of 11.25 cents per $1, instead of 8.25 cents.

If property taxes were eliminated, what would pay for county government operations? The county doesn't get local sales tax revenue.

This goofy idea of increasing sales taxes to lower property taxes would hurt low- and moderate-income people the most. But I doubt if Perry, Pauken or other Republican leaders are losing sleep over that prospect.