Austin Mayor Steve Adler reportedly doesn’t think that cities are contributing to Texas’ enormous property tax problem, according to the Texas Tribune’s Sanya Mansoor. Well, I beg to differ.

Property taxes levied by city governments totaled $8.4 billion in in 2015, representing 16 percent of the total share ($52.2 billion). On a per capita basis, that’s a tax burden of $305 per capita or $1,220 for a family of four.

The burden has grown fast too. Since 2000, the amount of taxes levied by cities has grown by 137 percent. Over the same period, population and inflation have only grown by 82 percent, according to this TPPF report.

Source: Texas Comptroller’s Biennial Property Tax Report for Tax Years 2014 and 2015

If you look at the annual growth rates, the Texas Comptroller reports that property taxes levied by city governments has grown by an average of 5.82 percent every year between 1996 and 2015. That’s a big increase in taxation to absorb year after year after year—especially considering that those years saw the economy suffer from the Great Recession and the dot com bust.

Source: Texas Comptroller’s Biennial Property Tax Report for Tax Years 2014 and 2015

So yes, property taxes levied by city governments are big, growing fast, and are definitely part of the reason that Texans are clamoring for reform.