HOT tax a necessity
Editor,
Nobody likes taxes. There are some in the community that are hypercritical of any tax. However, generally, tax revenues are used for the community’s good. Purposes include public safety, parks, roads, education and more.
Consider the simple fact that the more local the tax is collected, the greater the local impact. For example, Kendall County property taxes collected stay in Kendall County for the many services the county provides.
Hotel Occupancy Tax (HOT) is a modest fee collected from visitors that stay in short-term facilities like hotels, BnB’s, etc., and 100% of dollars collected in Kendall County are used to benefit Kendall County businesses.
Use of HOT revenue is an important economic tool available to Kendall County commissioners. This tool is already used by almost 500 successful and vibrant public entities in Texas. The Boerne Visitors’ Center is an example of this success.
The primary use of these funds must be used to directly enhance and promote tourism. This includes support of special events that bring visitors to stay overnight in Kendall County.
Almost as important, revenues can be used to promote the arts as well as fund historical restoration or preservation programs, both of which are highly important to Kendall County.
An additional benefit to the enhanced marketing programs is to the event centers, retailers and food and beverage establishments that rely on the regular out-of-area visitors.
As a small-business owner in Kendall County with a small overnight stay establishment of eight beds, I join many business owners in the Comfort community in strongly supporting and encouraging implementation of the HOT initiative.
Gary A. Louie
Comfort business owner
School taxes, explained
Editor,
Bob Imler’s letter on Kendall County appraisal increases includes understandable sentiments. Yet without citing facts, Bob criticizes what he terms a “tax-raising troika” of county, city and school governments.
As a Boerne ISD board trustee, I’ll offer these relevant facts. Taxable appraised value in BISD increased 84% since 2018, yet property taxes generated for BISD’s general fund (salaries, utilities, transportation, security, etc.) grew only 6.4%.
Why the disparity? BISD’s maintenance and operations (M&O) tax rate declined from $1.04 to $0.669 since 2019. Voters also approved large increases in the Homestead Exemption.
BISD trustees have long advocated for tax relief, understanding that school taxes are the largest share of property taxes. Until recently the average BISD homeowner paid $500 per year in school taxes (“Robin Hood”) confiscated for the state's general fund, not its education budget.
Texas’ share of school funding declined from a historical 50% to only 37% by 2019, increasing the reliance on property taxes.
Trustees worked hard to pass HB 3 in 2019 which increased state funding back to historical percentages. This increased state aid to our schools, allowing us to reduce tax rates.
One key to understanding public school finance is the state’s funding formulas, which have not increased since 2019 despite cumulative inflation of 22.4%.
Texas limits its spending growth to a combined inflation and population growth, a sensible metric. Due to static funding formulas, since 2019 BISD’s general fund has grown at a significantly lower rate than its combined enrollment growth and inflation; a disparity of $6 million per year.
Among BISD trustees’ legislative priorities will be addressing updates to funding formulas, improving teacher pay and advocating for additional property tax relief.
Last year the average BISD homeowner saw a drop of $900 in their school taxes. We don’t want to see this progress lost.
Rich Sena
Boerne resident
Democrat actions ‘extremist’
Editor,
On August 10 the Boerne Star had an interesting article from a Kendall County Democrat. It was a classic example of projection, deflection and gaslighting.
The article started with a history of propaganda, from Roman times, through Nazi Germany and into Russia. We were then warned about “our current period and the use of lies and misinformation that could destroy our democracy.”
Later, we were told about a group called the Braver Angels efforts to eliminate “toxic politics” and warned about “actions by extremists.”
Numerous members of The Kendall County Democrat’s national political party have compared Donald Trump to Hitler. Are they extremists? Is that toxic politics?
Numerous members of his party have called for Trump to be imprisoned. Are they extremists? Vladimir Putin imprisoned Alexi Navalny, his only serious political opponent. Now Navalny is dead.
Is our president an extremist for refusing to enforce our existing immigration laws? Are members of our government extremists for mandating the kind of stove you can use, and the kind of vehicle that you can drive?
Are members of state and local governments extremists for wanting to take children away from parents that won’t go along with their children’s requests for sex change operations?
Democrats, who claim to want to preserve our democracy, now have a presidential candidate that skipped the democratic primary nominating process after Biden was forced out by the former Speaker of the House.
Democrats are so tolerant until you disagree with them. Then you are labeled an extremist.
Richard C. Burnett
Fair Oaks Ranch resident
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