“I was born and raised in San Antonio. As an accountant, I like to say I deal with suicidals, homicidals and dreamers. If you get a letter from the IRS you’re suicidal or homicidal. That’s my life, 39 years of that. I have a master’s in professional accounting with a specialty in tax.

In Texas, the elephant in the room is that everybody is burdened by property taxes.

There’s a bill – House Bill 2 – that would require voter approval for local governments to raise property taxes beyond inflation, excluding the natural growth of the tax base.

You would have thought you killed every mayor’s puppy.

They drag in police chiefs, fire chiefs, and say ‘you can’t put limits on me because we’ll have to make layoffs.’ But these same people are increasing property taxes by 10 percent and more a year. Why is the increase in taxes exceeding growth in these communities? Too many leaders are leveraging so many people coming to Texas as a way to grow spending out of control.

They’re forgetting about efficient delivery of core services. And they don’t want any accountability for failing to control growth in their budget.”

— Michael Berlanga
San Antonio, Texas