Responsibility of the Texas government on the property taxes

          Paying taxes is the responsibility of every citizen. The tax money helps to support the government and services that can maintain and improve the citizens’ lives. However, high tax rates may become a burden to the citizens because they have to pay for many other sources. Specifically, the increasing property tax has been a controversial issue in Texas that need the attention of the government to set tax relief for taxpayers.

          To argue about the responsibility of the Texas government on this issue, the article: “Texans deserve responsible government” has been published on Empower Texans on March 5, 2019. The article is written by Morgan Cherry. He is a Texan, a taxpayer in Eastland County, and the owner of the 3R Ranch. He expresses his opinions about the high rates of property taxes in Texas. He directs Texans who oppose their high property taxes to support his ideas. Cherry blames the escalation of the tax for the Texas government because the government does not control it.

To clarify his argument, Cherry gives readers the information about his 2019 property tax which increases 25% within the last 5 years which is observed with the layoffs of oil, drilling business and going down of the produce prices. Moreover, the wages of citizens slowly increase which forces some people to have to work more than one job at the same time to afford for their lives. Later, he emphasizes that he opposes with the government on how they increase the taxes on the improvement of the farm and ranch lands. He points out that the prices for selling the farm and ranch lands are much staying the same, but they have to pay for the improvement on their lands and even pay much higher on their property taxes. Cherry states that the government should put more attention and change the legislature that can reduce the taxes which continue to go up every year. The government needs to take real actions to put the appropriate tax rates on the properties.

          However, there are some points in his argument that may not be persuasive to the readers. For example, he should give more examples of the increasing of the property taxes besides his 2019 property tax statement. The argument lacks the statistics and data to support his opinions. Cherry should show the readers with the statistics of the “layoffs of the oil and drilling business,” the decrease of the “livestock prices.” Moreover, his statement “statistics appear to show that urban home prices have recovered…” is not totally convincing because which “statistics” he mentions about are. He does not give the readers the statistics with real numbers.

         Overall, Cherry has made a good argument to strongly express his opinions about the responsibility of the government on the control of the property taxes. However, this argument cannot completely persuade the readers because of the lack of supporting data for his statements.