United states congressman for texas CONGRESSIONAL district 18

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THE HARRIS COUNTY SHARED RESPO​NSIBILITY ACT.

The Harris County Shared Responsibility Act would require residents of Harris County that Rent or Lease Apartments or Residential Property to contribute to our County Tax Base. Residents that live in apartments would have to contribute $500.00 per year, residents that lease homes would contribute $600.00 per year.

Here Is our current situation roughly 7out 10 residents of Harris County reside in apartments or leased reside in residential homes. These residents use all of the services that the county provides, however they don’t make direct financial contributions to support Harris County. For example, they are not required to make a direct contribution to the cost of educating our children H.I.S.D, the Harris County Hospital District, City of Houston taxes. On the other hand, 3 in 10 residents of Harris County Are Home Owners are required to make a direct financial contribution to the County Tax Base. The financial burden of Harris County fall directly on the shoulders of the home owners. If the home owner does not meet their financial responsibility they Risk Property Tax Foreclosure. In short the Homeowner has to pay or risk losing everything they have worked so hard for. 

By contrast residents that rent or lease don’t Share in The Financial Responsibility, in short they have nothing to risk or lose. In our current situation the Property Owners or leasing agents or companies are required to pay property taxes. However, the amount the building owners or leasing agents pay into the Tax base pales in comparison to the amount of services that the residents use. For example, the average homeowner has 3 to 5 residents per household while one apartment complex has thousands of residents. A system could be implemented whereby residents of apartments or leased residential properties would be required to make a direct payment to Harris County. The building owner would Not be responsible for Paying this fee, the person Renting or Leasing the property would be responsible for making the payment. The building owner would have to verify that the renter or leaser had met the County Financial Responsibility prior to signing an agreement. If the Owners fail to verify that payment had been made, then the Rental or Leasing agents would be responsible for the Payment. Here in Harris County we have 2.1 million residential rental or leasing units available for residential customers. This would be a great source of income for The Harris County Tax Base, and a relief to the Homeowners. Time has come for Every Resident of Harris County to Share in the Financial Responsibility.