Judge KP George Tax Relief Letter

Judge George Tax Relief Letter [PDF]

April 20, 2020

As your County Judge & the top elected official in Fort Bend County, we are taking every action to slow the spread and fight back against the invisible enemy of the novel coronavirus. In addition to our lives and safety being disrupted, our livelihoods have been affected. Many of you have already received your new appraisals, which determine this year’s tax bills. These appraisals are based on market property values as of January 1, 2020, a few short months before this pandemic brought the greatest economy in the world to a crashing halt.

As a longtime business owner and fellow taxpayer, I see and understand your concerns about these higher values. The power to revert property appraisals to their 2019 levels lies solely in the hands of our state elected officials such as our Governor, our Comptroller, and our Legislature.  I will work with any public official from any side of the aisle to better this process for our residents. In fact, I have already proposed a Resolution on Tuesday, April 21st for the Commissioners’ Court to adopt calling for major relief by our State Officials.

Additionally, Fort Bend County has continued a tradition of reducing taxes from 0.56000 cents per $100 in 1990 to $0.4600 cents per $100 in 2019 and only constitutes a small percentage of your overall taxes. However, I believe we must lead by example to help our residents. During these difficult times, I will be spearheading efforts with our Tax Assessor’s Office, Auditor’s Office, and Budget Office to keep our tax rate as low as possible while not compromising the services our community has come to expect – such as Emergency Medical Services to Flood Mitigation to Law Enforcement  – to ensure you have much needed relief. Through leading by example, I encourage all other taxing entities like the School Districts and Cities within Fort Bend County to also consider the financial hardship brought upon by this pandemic to follow suit and provide much needed relief to our residents.

We have set up a tool for you to see the tax rate for each entity in Fort Bend at: https://www.fortbendcountytx.gov/government/departments/financial-administration/tax-assessor-collector/tax-rate-information

All of our decisions will continue to be guided, by science, data, and community input – not fear.  If you would like to receive community updates, please make sure to sign up at: https://www.fortbendcountytx.gov/your-county/covid-19-alerts. To access verified and scientific information about COVID-19, make sure to visit: https://www.fbchealth.org/

President Lincoln put it best by defining our nation as one of “Of the People, By the People, and For the People.” This is a team effort as we navigate, as a people, through these truly uncharted waters. I will work diligently for you to provide this important tax relief, and, on the other hand, we need your help to ensure the best health guidelines from the CDC and local health officials are followed. I assure you that local public health officials and business leaders are working in tandem to achieve both goals because there is simply too much at stake.

We are Texans. We overcome struggles of every kind and emerge stronger and more resilient. 

God bless you and stay healthy,

KP George

Fort Bend County Judge