San Antonio 2 New Mexico: Our Response to Van de Putte's Desperate Attack

OUR RESPONSE TO VAN DE PUTTE’S BASELESS, DESPERATE ATTACK

Two years ago, Mike wrote and passed a bill to make it easier for homeowners to appeal unfair property appraisals. Leticia Van de Putte voted against these reforms. With San Antonio home values skyrocketing, she’s now trying to distract voters from that unpleasant fact.

Van de Putte's manufactured story flopped Tuesday because there is nothing to it. So her campaign talked somebody into filing a bogus ethics complaint. It's nothing more than smoke and mirrors.

We did not coordinate with a third-party entity. Our marketing firm hired a subcontractor who happened to also do work for an outside group.

Van de Putte voted against Mike’s House Bill 585 – not out of concern for homeowners, as she’s now saying, but because she was worried about a “negative impact” on Bexar County government. In other words, she thought county government would collect fewer tax dollars. This isn’t spin or innuendo. It’s a matter of public record.

Mike is the only major candidate in this race who has been meticulous in his record keeping. He hasn’t hidden sources of income or inappropriately shifted dollars to his campaign from unrelated accounts.

Now, spin and noise aside, here is what H.B. 585 really does:

Requires that ARB (Appraisal Review Board) members to consider additional evidence supplied by homeowners;
Review board members can be removed if they demonstrate bias against the homeowner;
If a homeowner wins an appeal one year, the next year, the chief appraiser must offer more evidence to increase the appraisal;
The chief appraiser no longer gets to choose the review board members;
Homeowners cannot be forced to wait more than 2 hours for a hearing;
Taxpayers must be compensated if they overpay their tax bill