Smith County property owners will be receiving their appraisal notices in coming days; perhaps now is a good time to revisit something Texas voters feel strongly about – property tax reform.

It was just a few weeks ago they demonstrated their frustration with how the state distributes the tax burden, with a ballot proposition that read, “Texas should replace the property tax system with an alternative other than an income tax and require voter approval to increase the overall tax burden.”

That measure passed overwhelmingly, about 70 percent to 30 percent.

Writing for the Texas Public Policy Foundation, James Quintero and Talmadge Heflin noted that property tax appraisals have increased statewide. That’s nice for homeowners looking to sell their houses soon, but for the rest of us, it means a bigger tax burden.

“Fortunately, there are measures that state and local officials could take to put taxpayers back in the driver’s seat instead of local taxing jurisdictions and appraisal districts,” Heflin and Quintero wrote. “The ultimate long-term solution must be to allow Texans the freedom to own their home by eliminating property taxes.”

But let’s start with some easy fixes. One has already been put into place. Last year, voters approved a constitutional amendment raising the homestead exemption on public school property taxes from $10,000 to $25,000.

With that increase in the exemption, the average Tyler ISD tax bill declined from $1,750.83 last year to $1,691.26 in 2015-16, Chief Financial Officer Tosha Bjork said. That’s a 3.5 percent decrease.

But going forward, the Texas Legislature could reform rollback provisions, making it easier for voters to roll back property tax rates they feel have been set too high by local officials.

“This would require an automatic local election to approve tax rates that would increase property tax revenue by more than the lesser of either population growth plus inflation or 4 percent,” they wrote. “This approach is gaining traction in the Legislature as it will provide greater budget transparency and help limit the rising tax burden.”

Remember, the power to tax is the power to take. Homeowners who fall behind on property taxes, due to financial troubles or illness, are at risk of losing their homes.

“This would allow homeowners to be delighted when they receive notice that their home value increased because they get to reap the rewards instead of stressing about paying higher taxes,” they wrote.

What would eliminating property taxes look like? To be revenue-neutral, of course, it would mean higher sales taxes.

“To replace property tax revenues in the most efficient way, research shows that the most simple, transparent, and economic enhancing option would be to enact a reformed sales tax,” they wrote. “If the sale of property and services taxed in at least one other state were added to the current sales tax base, then the rate would increase from 8.25 percent to 11 percent. Not much of a change when you consider that you get to keep substantially more money as a homeowner and renter without property taxes.”

It’s time to think about property tax reform.