A vicious and deceitful campaign mailer last week was the third in a series by a candidate desperate to win at any cost. Mailed for the purpose of “getting your attention” it featured a MS-13 gang member as the typical illegal immigrant living and voting in Galveston County. Political fear mongering has reached an all-time low in local politics and I appreciate this opportunity to set the record straight.
- I am not a career politician – Commissioner Clark’s 22 years, Judge Ellisor and Treasurer Walsh’s 18 years and Justice of the Peace McCumber’s 17 years exceed Judge Cox’s and my 15 years (16 at the end of 2020). I am a full-time public servant running a complex half billion dollar per year operation in four fulltime locations overseeing the performance of a multitude of services for five major State agencies and 36 local governments. This is a position that requires a high level of expertise, knowledge, experience and integrity.
- Have I ever cut your taxes? Yes – through many years of working with legislators on reforms that have impacted tax laws – passage of the senior tax ceiling for cities, counties and community colleges, allowing disabled vets, spouses of disabled vets and owners of all property types to have access to quarter payment options, reducing penalties for certain late payments and deferrals, allowing Robin Hood school districts to retain funds after a disaster, and, most recently, by providing expert testimony over a six year period that resulted in lower government spending limits I am very proud of a 10 year effort that made disaster reappraisal a Constitutional right! I do not vote on tax rates but all of these things, combined with teaching classes on how to reduce your property value, have had an impact on them and surely has slowed the bleeding.
- I have successfully taught thousands of property owners how to “Effectively Protest” their property values through an award winning class I developed based on a 15 year real estate appraisal career and county appraisal district director experience. What kind of teacher would I be if I had been unable to successfully reduce my own value?
In my class, I instruct you to select properties similar to yours in the neighborhood. My 3,100 square foot home on 3.5 acres (valued at $310,000) is sandwiched between a 6,100 square foot home on 4.75 acres with a pool and multiple garages (valued at $770,500) and a 4,600 square foot home on 3.5 acres with a saltwater pool, extensive decking, outdoor kitchen and apartment over a detached garage with a full kitchen (valued at $799,000). The very next home on our cul-de-sac is 2,800 square feet on two acres with decking and a detached garage (valued at $260,000).
Selecting the property most like mine would mean using the similarly sized property and adjusting for differences, placing my home at the appropriate value – its current value. GCAD does not favor elected officials over others as we are under great public scrutiny. In fact, protesting my value has become so impossible, that I have a property tax consultant do it for me! This has an added benefit of removing any suggestion of impropriety.
- The voter registrar is NOT responsible for illegal immigrants voting – that would be the responsibility of the County Clerk conducting elections. Without proper identification, noncitizens are unable to vote in Texas – unless an election judge looks the other way and I am certain that is not the case.
Of all of the false allegations – I am most disturbed by the suggestion that all illegal immigrants are MS-13 gang members or have the appearance of such. Although no one can deny the potential threat of criminals entering our southern border, the photos I have seen are predominantly of women and children. If one is to assume all non-English speaking persons are illegal (which in of itself is absurd), what I see each day throughout our communities are many nationalities of hard working men and women and their families.
I am also disturbed that anyone would suggest that I am responsible for the lawsuit that stopped the removal of a possible 58,000 noncitizens from Texas voter rolls. When the list of over 800 was provided to my office by the Secretary of State (SOS), a thorough investigation began and appropriate “matched” voters were sent a letter of inquiry as required by the Texas Election Code. As we neared the end of the second day, the SOS reported an error in the data provided by DPS. Almost simultaneously, MALDEF, the ACLU and others filed a lawsuit and a temporary restraining order was issued that halted the investigation.
I believe DPS “messed up” as it failed to remove from the original list of 98,000 more than 40,000 records of individuals that, over the course of 12 years, had established US citizenship. This error resulted in the entire project grinding to a halt until such time that the SOS could make improvements in the process acceptable to Plaintiffs in the lawsuit. Texas counties remain in limbo until authorized to continue the investigation – likely with a new, less lengthy list.
I am running for re-election to continue to improve services (we are ranked in the top 7 of 254 Texas counties for customer service and efficiency), reduce cost (through continued use of technology) and to continue the fight for property tax relief (appraisal reforms are still needed). Vote for candidates who are knowledgeable, experienced leaders committed to serving you. Send a clear message that you want candidates to run on their qualifications and will not be fooled by negative, deceitful campaign tricks.
Cheryl E. Johnson, PCC
Galveston County Tax Assessor Collector
