|
"All of our freedoms flow from our ability to own our own property. I'm committed to finding ways to lower our reliance on property taxes, keep government budgets honest, and protect homeowners from aggressive appraisals." --- Lois
* In 2009, she supported HB 8 and HB 3613 which were recently passed into law to protect property taxpayers from aggressive re-evaluations.
* Lois drafted a tax relief bill of her own in 2009 (HB 2505) to raise the small business exemption to $1 million, which was later included in a larger franchise tax reform bill.
* She worked hard to help pass HB 1 in 2006, which cut local school property tax rates and gave more power to local taxpayers to decide how and when school funds are spent.
* To fight runaway appraisals, she’s joint-authored several proposals that will cap aggressive local appraisals. Although some of these proposals have passed the House in recent sessions, none have passed the Senate or become law. She vows to continue her support of appraisal reform, which has been a career-spanning goal.
* To empower property owners even more, she supported legislation that passed in 2005 that makes it easier to fight an unreasonable appraisal hike.
* Despite passing landmark legislation that cuts school property taxes, Lois knows we need to do more to reign in aggressive appraisals. She knows that any property tax cut will be eroded by local appraisal offices if we don't implement major reforms.
* She continues to fight for ways to reduce our government's reliance on property taxes and making it easier to for voters to call for local tax roll back elections.
* Lois will fight to stop unfunded mandates from being passed on to local governments which often result in tax hikes.
* She will encourage more public input into the property tax appraisal process by changing the composition of appraisal district boards. Currently, all appraisal board members come from the taxing entities, but Lois will push to balance that with independent members who represent only the taxpayers.
* Prior to being named Chair of the House Public Health Committee, Lois served for six years on the House Appropriations Committee. She knows how to cut wasteful spending. The state budget had a $10 billion deficit when she first became a budget-writer, and today the state realizes a multi-billion dollar surplus. Lois believes this money should be returned to the taxpayers with bigger property tax cuts, appraisal caps and refunds to the revised business tax.
* She also knows how to fight against taxpayer waste, as a member of the powerful Sunset Advisory Commission. During her four-year tenure, she passed several Sunset bills to help streamline how the government works and abolish redundant state agencies.
* To help Texans see how their dollars are spent, Lois co-wrote a new concept that became law in 2007 (HB 3430) to open the books on state spending, requiring that state expenditures at every state agency be posted online for the public. Today, any Texan can research state spending by logging on to Window on State Government.
* Lois also supports recent proposals to require that local governments who rely heavily on property taxes to post their check registers (along with their budgets) online so taxpayers can see where their money was spent.
Back to top
|
"Kolkhorst is becoming known throughout Austin as a hard worker and a quick study."
~ Brenham Press Editorial
"The new headquarters for the Washington County Boys and Girls Club had their ribbon cutting this morning... Most of Brenham and Washington County's leaders were there,
including Rep. Kolkhorst... Many credit her for getting the $500,000 grant from Texas Department of Parks and Wildlife in getting the new headquarters built."
~ KWHI Radio News
|
