City Council Candidate Questionnaire

On behalf of the members of your local association of REALTORS®, we commend you for seeking office and appreciate you taking time to complete this questionnaire.

The purpose of the questionnaire is to establish an issue-based dialog between you and your local REALTOR® partners, as well as our clients who buy and sell real estate in our community.

REALTORS® are committed to our communities, our clients, and the public. We work to ensure private property rights are protected, and that Texans can buy, sell, lease, and enjoy real property. To accomplish those goals, we monitor and advocate on a wide variety of local, state, and federal policy issues. The following questions seek to understand your position as a candidate and potential lawmaker on issues that will impact housing and real estate within your jurisdiction.

Your responses to the questionnaire will not be made public, nor are they a litmus test for campaign support.

Your local association of REALTORS® appreciates your attention to this candidate questionnaire and is available to answer any questions.

We also work in strong partnership with the Texas REALTORS®, our state-level professional association. You may contact the Texas REALTORS® Governmental Affairs Department at 512-480-8200.

Candidate information

Candidate's name

Office sought

Which local REALTOR® association conducted the interview?

Interview date

Political Party (if applicable)

Candidate's mailing address

Candidate's phone

Candidate's mobile phone

Candidate's email address

Candidate's website

Candidate's Facebook page

Candidate's Twitter username

Why are you running for office?

What are your top three priority issues?

Briefly describe any current or previous community engagement or service you have done.

Campaign information

How much do you expect to spend in this race?

How much have you raised so far?

Campaign manager

Campaign treasurer

Campaign consultant(s)

Professional fundraiser

Briefly describe your plan to win this election, including your plans for fundraising, communicating, and identifying/turning out your voters.

What is your prior professional or community engagement with local REALTORS®?

If the association decides to support your campaign, would you accept funds from our Texas Association of REALTORS® Political Action Committee (TREPAC)?

Rental registration

Issue: Rental registration

Background:Several cities across Texas have undertaken excessively restrictive measures on rental property in their communities in an effort to monitor landlords and generate local fee driven revenues through rental property. Some of these actions are registration of rental property and the inspection of rental property with permitting and other subsequent fees associated with these measures.

Question 1: Would you support or oppose proposals to enact a rental registration or rental property inspection fee?

Support
Oppose

Explanation of Position

Short-term rentals

Issue: Short-term rentals

Background: Short-term rentals, or vacation rentals, are typically defined as those less than 30 days and no more than 90 days in a calendar year. These are typically single-family homes in neighborhoods of cities that are desirable to their visitors.

Some cities have banned short-term rental use in their local development or zoning codes and others have licensed the use under specific parameters or guidelines. Such registration programs can be required for all short-term-rental owners or may be limited to those owners who exclusively rent their properties as an investment.

Question 2: Would you support or oppose banning short-term rental use in your city?

Support
Oppose

Explanation of Position

Question 3: Would you support or oppose requiring a registration process for owners of these properties?

Support
Oppose

Explanation of Position

Property taxes

Issue: Property taxes

Background: Creating a budget and adopting a property tax rate to support that budget are major functions of locally elected officials in Texas.

In simple terms, the Texas property tax system is based on an equation that multiplies a property’s appraised value by locally adopted tax rates. In recent years, Texans have seen skyrocketing property tax bills due to rapid increases in appraised value and little or no change in their tax rates. In addition, over the last decade, many local taxing jurisdictions have seen their budgets increase over 60%, far outpacing the rate of inflation and population growth.

When appraisal values increase, taxing jurisdictions can hold the line by adopting a tax rate that guarantees no new revenue will be realized from existing properties, instead relying on new or improved properties to generate new revenue. (Formerly known as the “effective tax rate,” new property tax laws resulting from Senate Bill 2 from the 86^th Texas Legislature will rename this the “no-new-revenue maintenance and operations rate.”)

Some taxing entities assert that if they do not change or even lower tax rates, but taxpayers’ overall bills go up due to an increase in the appraised value of the property, this does not constitute a property tax increase.

Question 4: If a property owner’s tax bill goes up, does that constitute a tax increase?

Explanation of Position

Question 5: Do you support increased transparency measures, including (but not limited to) better notifications and explanations of terms, to ensure property owners fully understand why their property tax bill increases or decreases, and would you work to implement such changes in your city?

Explanation of Position

Question 6: While considering the relationship between local taxing jurisdictions (city, county, or school district) and the Central Appraisal District, what role do you feel the Chief Appraiser/ Central Appraisal District should play in the budgeting process for your city?

Local homestead exemptions

Issue: Local homestead exemptions

Question 7: Currently, local taxing jurisdictions have the ability to grant local property owners an exemption for their homesteads. Do you favor the local homestead exemption for your taxing jurisdiction as a way of providing property tax relief?

Appraisal caps

Issue: Appraisal caps

Background: Currently, Texas has a 10 percent cap on the increase in Assessed Values for residential homesteads. Several proposals in the Texas Legislature would artificially cap property appraisals at 3 percent or 5 percent annually. Further, some of these proposals would allow local-option elections that would allow for appraisal caps on a local level.

Question 8: Would you support efforts to lower the appraisal cap at the local level and/or extend the appraisal cap to commercial and industrial property?

Explanation of Position

Eminent domain

Issue: Eminent domain

Question 9: What is your opinion on the use of eminent domain and in what instances should a local government utilize the power of eminent domain?

Taxes and the economy

Issue: Taxes and the Economy

Question 10: In times of economic downturn, what measures do you propose for your city (i.e., tax rate increase, specific cuts in services, etc.)?

Energy-Efficiency Standards at Point of Sale

Issue: Energy-efficiency standards at point of sale

Background: Some city councils have proposed to mandate certain energy-efficiency upgrades in residential properties which must be completed and certified prior to the sale of the property. These mandates would require all properties to be retrofitted to meet the standards of the mandates, costing sellers thousands of dollars.

Question 11: If elected, would you support efforts to impose mandatory energy-efficiency upgrades in existing housing?

Candidate comments for the REALTOR® community

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