Your next Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector

Will be one of these two:

Don Sumner.

(Anti-tax Man says breaks for oil are necessary, Chris Moran, ChronBlog Local Politics)

Paul Bettencourt's ideal is right. The citizens deserve a "common sense" hands-on Tax Assessor-Collector as their advocate, one that will fight property tax increases, question improper use of taxes and demand fair and equal appraisals by the Appraisal District.

Not mentioned is that the "Paul Bettencourt ideal" involved getting re-elected and then almost immediately resigning to go into business for himself, thus ensuring that a Republican replacement was appointed to the office.


Diane Trautman.

(Tax Assessor Candidate Diane Trautman Opposes Unearned Valero Tax Break

"We want Valero to profit and do business in Texas. But we cannot allow them to avoid paying their fair share of taxes through some slight (*oopsie*) of hand accounting."

That would be sleight of hand accounting there Ms. Trautman's campaign consultant. Not that attention to detail has anything to do with the HC Tax Assessor-Collector's position.

What makes this race so important (and key) is that the HCTA-C office controls the registration process for elections. Expect ChronBlog's Apple Dumpling Bayou City Gang to endorse Trautman...along with almost every other Democrat on the ticket not named Gordon Quan (I'm betting Emmett gets the nod). I think this will be close. And I think that the only real loser is going to be the general public, no matter who wins.


Thanks to ChronBlog Local Politics for giving me the idea for this post.