.1^ BUDGET & PLANNING 45. Property Taxes: Peveto Bill (including cleanup bill) and anticipated impact. Positive o Implementation of new constitutional school tax exemptions, productivity valuation of agricultural lands, and ceiling on school taxes paid by those over 65. o Voters granted limited authority to roll back property tax in- creases. Truth-in taxation enacted and subsequently claritied. o Growth in school taxes slowed down each year from 1974 to 1980. o Put before the voters a constitutional amendment to expand home- stead exemptions tor all taxing entities (of to 40 percent at local option). o More professional property tax administration through county wide appraisal districts and state standards for the operation of tax offices. o Fought tor repeal of State Ad Valorem Tax. Negative o Property tax burden shitted towards homeowner in many districts (to be offset partially by 40 percent local option exemption). Potentially a very explosive political issue. o Local squabbles over appraisal districts and their costs. Many small rural districts resent their assigned share ot appraisal district costs. Reports on that single appraisal districts are costing much more than the total ot the two or more previous appraisal offices. o No major property tax reductions, and in tact, the 1981 increase was substantially larger than any during the past 7 years (pos- sibly due to two factors: (1) districts' attempts to obtain a higher tax level before rollback referendum provisions go into effect; (2) early implementation ot 100 percent valuation provi- sions of new property tax code.)
