For Wilshire Baptist Church
I woke up this morning with two writing deadlines. Most days I’m juggling two or more projects, so this isn’t unusual. And actually, I like it that way because when I get stuck on one project, I move to the other and that usually gets me fixed. And often I’m moving between fiction and some sort of journalism, so the jump from unfettered creativity to very focused communication is good for my head. But today, somewhat to my surprise, my two assignments have converged; I’m writing this weekly blog, and I’m writing an annual property tax protest.
Let me go on record and state emphatically that I am all-in for paying property taxes. I think they are an excellent mechanism for paying for some of the things that help turn a rabble of people into a functioning, livable community: police and fire protection, public education, county health services to name just a few. These are all things we want and need in a civil society, so my protest is not against taxes; it is about how much to pay.
Part of our protest is to keep our market value at a reasonable level. We have a newish house in the oldest neighborhood in Garland, and it just isn’t worth what the county appraisers say it’s worth. It’s worth what we paid to have it built plus reasonable appreciation, but not Highland Park or Frisco appreciation.
Another part of our protest is to make sure our valuation doesn’t harm our neighbors, some who have lived in their homes for generations. The problem is that just as a rising tide lifts all boats, rising property values on one street corner in time can raise values up and down the street, and that’s what leads to waves of teardowns and rebuilding as one neighbor after another sells to escape taxes they can’t afford. We don’t want to be the first domino that tilts and starts the chain reaction.
And another part of our protest is that we want to be able to share some of our disposable income elsewhere. As friend and Wilshire member Steve Brookshire says so eloquently when talking about our church’s finances: we don’t have a shortage of resources; we have a problem with the allocation of those resources. The church teaches us to tithe 10 percent of our income, and too often we act as if the other 90 percent is ours to keep. But as Steve points out, 100 percent of what we have is a gift from God.
LeAnn and I are more than happy to render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s, but we also want to render unto other people and causes too. We want to pay our fair share in our community, but our community is not just our neighbors down the street or within the boundaries of our municipal taxing jurisdiction, or even just our church and the people our church reaches. Our neighbors are people on the other side of Dallas, and at the Texas-Mexico border, and in the Mississippi Delta, and inner-city Chicago, and in Africa, the Caribbean and elsewhere.
The tax protest will be uploaded in a little while, and I don’t know if it will change anybody’s mind down at the appraisal district. This will be the fifth time I’ve done this in eight years and the results have been mixed. Last year’s effort didn’t change our tax bill but it reduced our total market value. This year we’re just wanting to tap the brakes again on escalation that can dampen our ability to be good neighbors today and damage our neighborhood tomorrow.
And I’ve just now uploaded this blog, and I don’t know if it will resonate with anyone. If anything, it may just be a reminder of the difficult balancing act we all must perform as dual citizens of our community and the Kingdom of God.