I ran across this Republican blog, Slightly Rough <
http://www.robbooth.net/2006/05/dope-smokin-moron.shtml>, and was struck by the level of annoyance that Perry is generating within the Republican Party with his "hooray for me and my new tax scheme ad":
"Saw a Gov. Perry ad where he touted his "property tax cuts." What a moron. He has no clue that anyone who has listened to KSEV in the past few years, or can do math, knows that that's a fraud. Heck, depending on how my protest goes, the tax cut could be wiped out by a higher appraisal before it even goes into effect. And how does he tout higher spending when there's supposedly a tax cut? I guess smokers don't count."
"FIRST LIE: Perry's fictitious ad claims that the average Texas homeowner will receive a two thousand dollar property "tax cut" over the next three years.
TRUTH: Perry falsely inflates his so-called "tax cut" number by incorrectly starting with the average home sales price, but taxes are based on the much lower average home appraisal value, so Perry should base his "tax cut" spin on the appraised value. This error alone inflates Perry's number by about 50% over the correct starting point where he should begin his calculation from because the average appraised value of Texas homes is around $118,000 as compared to the 50% higher average sales price of $180,500 which Perry used. Perry then further inflates his so-called "tax cut" by pretending that there is a cap on home appraisals, which is an idea many proposed but Perry and his tax-hiking administration refused to consider. Even without voter approval, school boards are granted the authority to increase the property tax rate by $.04 per $100 of appraised value (they can raise it even higher with voter approval). Every bit of our past experience tells us the school boards will in fact raise the tax rate by at least $.04 per $100. This eventuality would have been avoided if Perry had passed a cap on appraisal increases, but Perry refused to consider such a measure. When you figure in this inevitable $.04 per $100 increase, the amount of property taxes which are being replaced by the new small business income tax is less than a third of Perry's "pie in the sky" number."