What is the Logic Behind Allowing Homeowners to Protest the Increases in their Home's Taxable Value?

What is the logic surrounding the idea that you can “protest your taxable property value”?  Every year my home’s taxable value goes up. A lot.  Every year I spend hours, sometimes with paid help, to reduce it back down as much as I can.  

Even with the reduction it still goes UP.

Let’s think about what is going on here.  I live in Bexar County, Texas.

Either Bexar County has the authority to tax us on our property, or they don’t. If they do, then they should tell me how much I owe them and demand I pay it. If I don’t pay this amount, then throw me in a cage. That’s how taxes works.

It says something about your authority if you tell people to stay until 7 pm at work every day, but they always get to protest their departure back to 430 pm everyday.

Having your populace go and spend time and resources to protest and reduce that taxable amount is evidence that you’re either A) not good at estimating taxable value (your only job by the way) or B) you’re wildly guessing, blanket increasing by area and playing the numbers hoping that most people wont protest.

The amount of unproductive time spent ‘protesting’ is also asinine and wasteful. Entire industries of “Let is help you protest your taxes” are popping up. Why?  This isn’t productive and it prevents us from spending our resources for their highest and best use.

Additionally, our public services are also needlessly stressed (courts, clerks, and even the Constables) during this ‘Protest’ thing that our State government has created out of thin air.  Is this their highest and best use?  How much are we paying them to service this charade?

Looking at the human level, for those with the luxury of ‘time’ to come protest, sure, we may get a lower taxable value. But when the taxing authority looks at the data of how many protest year-to-year, anybody with an MBA knows that they would just start inflating values expecting a certain percentage of people to ‘protest’.

For those who are literally working 3 jobs and keeping their families above water, sorry!  Sounds like you’ll pay the entirety of our assessed increase in taxable value.  That’s quite the regressive tax system which inordinately hurts the poor.  Was this the main goal of the Protest process or just an unintended consequence?

Finally, the mental gymnastics needed for Mark Vojvodich, the Constable, literally the guy who will come and rip me from my family and home if I don’t pay these taxes, to be running classes on reducing my homes taxable value is beyond me.

Don’t get me wrong, I like that I can reduce the taxable value of my home with some effort and time. But logically, isn’t getting that reduction akin to the prisoner painting his shackles gold and feeling better about his situation?

​Any help here?