VZC citizens start petition process to limit tax rate

The process to call for a possible special tax rollback election in Van Zandt County has recently begun.

Chief Election Deputy in the VZC Clerk’s office Elsa Smith confirmed that two citizens have requested information on how they can start petition efforts to force the call of a tax rollback election by the VZC Commissioners Court.

On Sept. 12, the VZC Commissioners Court approved a 2017 tax year rate of $.615847 per $100 valuation after conducting two public hearings earlier in the month.

The 2017 tax year rate exceeds the preceding year’s tax rate ($.585847), the effective tax rate ($.552805) and the rollback tax rate ($.587864).

The effective tax rate is the total tax rate needed to raise the same amount of property tax revenue for VZC from the same properties in both the 2016 and 2017 tax years.

The rollback tax rate is the highest tax rate that VZC may adopt before voters are entitled to petition for an election to limit the rate that may be approved to the rollback rate.

“We have received a request for petitions and they have started collecting signatures,” said Smith. “They have 90 days to collect their petitions and required signatures after the commissioners’ court officially approved the tax rate which took place on Sept. 12. According to the Texas Tax Code, section 26.07, they need to collect the signatures of at least 10 percent of the registered voters in Van Zandt County which is 3,601 voters.”

VZC citizens Jean Westbrook and Ronnie Jones informed Smith after the second public hearing on Sept. 8 of their intention to get petitions and collect signatures.

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