With property taxes due soon, I felt writing this letter was a necessity. Our state legislators and our governor told us that lowering the per hundred (dollar evaluation) school tax would save almost every homeowner an estimated $2,000 over a three-year period. Our school superintendent said that school enrollment is flat for 2007, yet when you get your tax evaluation statement from the Kendall County appraisal office, many of you find your land evaluation has doubled … or worse. What a sham! Lower per-hundred taxes should translate into a savings for homeowners. Why not ask your taxing entities (school, county, city and water district) why the increase?

If you protest your evaluation, the stock answer is, “There were properties sold in your area at a higher evaluation, so yours needs to go up.” Isn’t this taxation without representation?

I served for five years representing Kendall County on the appraisal board. Every issue pertaining to schools was a rubber-stamp vote for the superintendent’s wish list. I can’t remember how many times I was voted down. Isn’t it time for concerned homeowners in our fair county to bond together and fix a broken system?

It cost almost one million hard-earned tax dollars per year to run and implement a broken system in our appraisal office. My taxes are frozen because of age, but why is it fair to raise my evaluation and cause my neighbors undue tax burdens?

Many newcomers are buying homes based on higher incomes in 2007 than we made in 1976, but why should I pay taxes on land evaluations that are 10 to 15 times higher than when purchased? It produces no windfall profit if I choose to live out my retirement years where I have lived for 30 years.

Why should these properties from four to 13 acres receive an agriculture exemption in the subdivision where I live and pay almost nothing in land tax? Agriculture exemptions were set for people making a living off the land. They were not set up to skirt the responsibility of paying your fair share of taxes. “Rent-a critter” or “rent-a-farmer” is not the right way to pay your fair share of taxes. Non-profit entities buying up taxable land and properties also erode the tax base. This also needs to be addressed.

A complete overhaul in our appraisal system, from the appraisal district to the appraisal board, is needed. Please consider helping. Let’s get this corrected. Political correctness and supporting unfair taxation must stop. We are a capitalist country, not a socialist country. The system is broken. Let’s band together and get it fixed!

Darold G. Kruse
Boerne, Texas