Nobody understands property taxes

This tax rate election offers the people of Austin a chance to have an informed debate about what they want from their city government and what they're willing to pay. There are cogent arguments on both sides.

But it's hard to have that debate when people don't even seem to know how much they're currently paying for city government — or what they're being asked to pay.

Yesterday I wrote about how the pro-Prop Q campaign has largely tried to turn this election into an anti-Trump referendum. I've definitely seen anecdotal evidence of people being turned off/insulted by that approach, but I could still see it working.

To their credit, the anti-Prop Q people are talking about the issue at hand — just not honestly.

For instance, Save Austin Now has brilliantly created this "tax calculator" that apparently calculates your taxes and then adds many thousands on top. According to it, the owner of a $500,000 home (close to the city median) will owe $13,312 in "Austin city tax" if Prop Q passes.

Uh, no. The owner of a recently-purchased* $500,000 homestead will have an annual city property tax bill of $2,296 and a total property tax bill of $8,001.

By the way, I would encourage you to forward this to friends who you suspect might be getting misled by this stuff. And of course encourage them to subscribe!