Behold! The Tax Man Cometh

Big Brother will have a new tool for hitting your wallet if a bill filed by democratic state Rep. Mike Villarreal becomes law. The bill would require the disclosure of the sales price in real estate transactions.

The biggest proponents of the measure are the local appraisal districts. They are charged with setting the "fair market" value of all real estate for taxing purposes. Currently, state law does not require the disclosure of the purchase price in a property sale. While most appraisal districts get that information on residential property by joining realtor's multiple listing service, the Tax Men claim that such information can be much harder to come by on commercial property sales. The Texas Association of Appraisal Districts claims that $301,000,000,000.00 was left off tax rolls statewide last year.

Not so, say opponents, including the Texas Association of Realtors and Texas Apartment Association. They say that when it comes to commercial property, there are too many variables that determine the price someone paid for a certain price for a property and that such a price disclosure bill would lead to inflated commercial property appraisals.