DALLAS, TX – A bill that appears destined to become state law would force tax collectors/assessors across the state to offer electronic communications online – and you’d have to pay a fee for the privilege.
Isn’t that interesting? Everybody from your bank to your car loan lender is begging you to switch to paperless billing. But only your state government is considering making you pay for the privilege.
The head of the tax collector association is waving a red warning flag on this bill, as is Dallas County tax collector/assessor John Ames. They question the why behind it.
Suspicions abound about Senate Bill 1413, which was introduced by state Sen. Angela Paxton, R-McKinney, who declined to talk to The Watchdog about her bill. It passed the Senate unanimously and appears set for a House vote shortly.
What makes this bill especially interesting is how it provides a behind-the-scenes look at how bills are often pushed by members of an industry for whom the bill is aimed. In this case, two staffers at Dallas-based Ryan company, one of the largest property tax consultant companies in the state, wrote Paxton’s bill, company chairman and CEO G. Brint Ryan told me.
Even though Ryan is behind it (he hired lobbyist Andrea McWilliams to push it), Ryan told me neither he nor his company will profit from its passage.
“I get that all the time,” he said in an interview about questions raised of his involvement. “Why in the world could a guy like me not be out there like everybody else trying to pad his own pockets? Dave, I make plenty of money. I’ve got a very successful business. I care first about my clients, and if I can level the playing field and make it easier for them it benefits me because I can focus on the true work at hand and not be billing people to get them out of penalties, missed payments and all that.”
Ryan chaired Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s Back to Work task force last year. Allowing electronic communiques was one of many recommendations from his panel.
Paxton’s original bill would have forced every property owner in the state to automatically get enrolled in the electronic communication program, unless they opt out. This would replace using the U.S. mail for property tax communications, such as bill receipt, payment and penalty notices between a county collector and his or her customers. That, fortunately, has been changed from opting out to opting in.
Although the bill is getting altered, the last version I saw says governments can charge a fee for the e-service to cover the cost. But the proposed law doesn’t regulate how much. That’s an uh-oh.
Paxton’s partnership with Ryan on this bill became obvious to tax collectors because of a scene in a Capitol corridor described to me by Tammy McRae, president of the Tax Collector-Assessors Association of Texas.
McRae, who collects for Montgomery County, had testified in a Senate hearing against the bill, and Paxton, who is married to Attorney General Ken Paxton, followed her out into the hallway.
“She asked me and the folks from Ryan to work together to make this bill acceptable to both parties,” she said.
Was there follow-up?
“No, sir,” she said. “We were never contacted by Ryan.”
Suspicions were further aroused because in March, Ryan announced his company had purchased PTX Tech, a Georgia-based company specializing in tax data and software. Ryan’s company handles property tax accounts for owners in more than 50 countries, but with the software company, Ryan can do more.
Ryan addressed suspicions that he would sell software systems to counties to implement the change. He told me that won’t happen because governments are not his clients; property owners are. Working both sides wouldn’t look right, he said.
His true goal, he said, is to “get all our taxing authorities to join us here in the 21st Century… I want to modernize our tax system. I believe this is good Texas policy.”
Dallas collector Ames said his county already offers the service. He worries that if the bill passes he’ll have to spend taxpayer money to cover costs to alter his current system and hire more people.
“It makes more bureaucracy,” he said. “We’re confused as to how this helps people, at least I am, anyway.”
The bill doesn’t apply to counties under 25,000 population.
Galveston County Tax Assessor-Collector Cheryl E. Johnson supports the bill.
“I will never stand in the way of improving governmental efficiency – even if it creates a bit of extra work on our part because that is what we are here to do, work for the benefit of property owners.”
In Ryan’s case and that of most tax consultants, the electronic communications would bypass property owners and go straight to their consultants representing them. That makes it easier for consultants and their clients, he said, insisting that’s his only interest. He will make no money on this, he said.
Note that after Ryan donated $30 million to the University of North Texas two years ago — the largest donation in school history — the business school was renamed the G. Brint Ryan College of Business.
“There’s enough of that crap that goes around so members of the media have every right to jump into it, investigate and find out what the truth is,” he said. “I applaud you for doing that. I guess my point would be that not everything is generated out of self interest.”
Maybe so, but to take advantage of this potential service, many Texans would still have to pay up.
