Austin’s Taxing Primary
December 12th, 2007 at 11:06 am
We confess we were baffled when former Austin state Rep. Glen Maxey announced earlier this year he would jump back into elective politics — and into a contested Democratic primary, no less — to run for, of all things, Travis County Tax Assessor-Collector.
You may be thinking, Good God, man, why? No one’s less popular around town than the tax collector. And, besides, Nelda Wells Spears has served ably enough (our taxes seem to get collected…damn it) for 16 years.
Maxey said he initially became interested in the office because he thought that Spears was planning to retire. “Ms. Spears… was telling everybody she was going to retire,”Maxey said. But, when it became apparent that Spears did not plan to retire, Maxey says he decided to continue — because he says he can do more with the office, and he has accused Spears of “not showing up” for Travis taxpayers.
Maxey, known as one of the best organizers in the state, was last seen running unsuccessfully for Texas Democratic Party Chair, and heading the 2004 Texas campaign of former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean (now Democratic National Committee chair).
Maxey said he thinks he can register more voters and be a voice at the Legislature and appraisal board in both the property tax debate and the issue of equity in appraisals.
Spears has been Travis County Tax Assessor-Collector since August of 1991, when she says, she felt like she had some hands-on experience with the office and was appointed to the job by the Travis County Commissioners Court. She won the office outright in 1992 and has been winning it ever since — by virtue of the county’s high voluntary collection rate and equally high number of registered voters compared with other urban areas in Texas.
Spears says she has provided the leadership that has led to those results, and she said she will be running on her “record of results.”
Like most primaries, this one is getting testy.
“This office is not doing its job,” Maxey says. He pointed out that Spears, who as Assessor-Collector is on the Travis County Appraisal Board, has a 12 percent attendance record there. “She’s abdicated her duty,” he told me.
Spears counters that the board slot is a non-voting position and that it was not the intent of the legislature that a local Assessor-Collector should play a significant role in the deliberations and action of the Central Appraisal District (CAD).
Spears said it’s Maxey’s prerogative to run, but has suggested he should have run for the Legislature.
Travis County Democrats normally have few contested primaries to worry about. It’s even rarer that there’s a fight featuring two veteran Austin Democrats. The race so far has seen many of the old-guard Democrats rally around Spears, including former state party chair Charles Soechting, former Comptroller John Sharp, and others. They argue that Spears has done a good job, and Soechting in particular notes that Maxey could have a tougher time in a general election against a Republican.
