The Comical has fallen all over itself to cover the dueling estimates of Robin Hood finance alternatives coming from the Governor’s office and the Comptroller’s office.
I don’t put much faith in the comptroller’s numbers, given her prior history, and I can’t really figure out her agenda. But she does seem determined to be a pain in our Governor’s backside.
Anyway, an alternative to Robin Hood may not emerge in the session(s), but it seems likely (to me) that some relief for the appraisal creep of recent years will be a slam dunk.
Interestingly, today’s Comical coverage doesn’t mention Harris County Tax Assessor/Collector Paul Bettencourt at all, despite his testimony in Austin and a detailed powerpoint presentation he’s made available (click here to download, but it’s big). Is it really that hard for a Comical reporter to pick up the phone? I know they ran an op-ed by Bettencourt several weeks ago, but I would think the reporters might want to talk to a guy who’s compiled what seems to be a pretty good set of numbers on the state’s property tax issues.
So far as I can tell, News-24 is the only local outlet that bothered to track down Bettencourt.