Tomorrow, June 28, Travis County commissioners will decide whether to continue to offer property tax exemptions to historic properties. Right now, there is a proposal that will gut the exemption and offer a mere $350 annual property tax reduction for historic properties. This miniscule exemption will further work to discourage property owners from maintaining and restoring historic structures in Austin and Travis County. Already AISD has eliminated this and the city of Austin is still trying to decide what to do.
There is value in preserving historic structures. One of the things that especially makes Downtown Austin so attractive is that so far, it hasnt't been wholly dismantled and replaced with boring anywhere USA structures. The fabric and history of our city still lives in historic buildings all over town. We need to maintain incentives for developers and homeowners to preserve the past with tax exemptions. That preservation leads to desirable environments that people want to live and work in. That desirability drives property prices higher, ultimately increasing the tax base and bringing more cash to government. It is short sighted to kill this program for short term budget concerns.
Please tell Travis County commissioners you support historic tax exemptions.
Contact County commissioners:
Sarah.Eckhardt@co.travis.tx.us
commissioner.gomez@co.travis.tx.us
Preserve history in Travis County!
Jeff Harris, Broker
512-917-8142
Jeff Harris
Realtor/ Mortgage Broker
True Austin Properties
SXSW has officially kicked off in Austin, with Downtown Austin condo dwellers right in the thick of things. Movie, media, interactive are in full swing with film premieres, workshops and presentations, and a line around the block at Apple's pop up store launching the new iPad. While I was downtown on Friday doing the final make-ready and staging for my 
The slogan Keep Austin Weird must have been on the drunken minds of two men who rode horseback down E. 6th street in Downtown Austin last weekend. In the heart of Austin's famous entertainment district, Austin police observed 2 men on horseback casually trotting down the street in traffic on a busy Friday night. Apparently APD smelled alcohol on the riders after stopping them (I guess vodka is more aromatic than horse manure) and promptly arrested them for driving under the influence. It is not against the law to ride a horse down the street in Texas but apparently if you get drunk and do it on 6th street on Friday night, Austin police might ask a few questions. 
Austin Independent School District (AISD) is considering closing several neighborhood schools in an effort to save money. AISD is considered "property rich" and sends locally collected dollars to the state for redistribution. This redistribution plus lower funding from the state and rising expenses have forced AISD to consider moves that would save dollars. 
Please Travis County, rethink this decision.
This week, the Austin Independent School district eliminated the property tax exemptions for historic properties. Apparently, the exemptions for these vintage homes and buildings was breaking the bank in a tight budget year. Problem is, according to the Statesman, AISD will net less than $100,000 as a result. That's because, although a total of almost 2 million extra tax dollars will now be collected, the state's recapture formula for schools sends most of that cash to the State of Texas to educate others outside our community. The debate about the fairness of that is for another time, but the fact remains that AISD is ultimately helping to diminish the imputed higher value that otherwise accrues to historic properties because of the tax advantage of owning and renovating them. It also serves as a lesson to school children that history has little value in our community. 
