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- Later today, the Texas House is slated to debate a revised property tax relief proposal that, in essence, combines the differing proposals originally passed by the Senate and the House. Brandon Waltens has the details.
- Since the beginning of the session, the House and Senate have been at odds on how to deliver property tax relief.
- The proposal originally passed by the Senate would increase the homestead exemption from $40,000 to $70,000 and allow seniors or disabled adults to get an additional $30,000. Meanwhile, the House’s original version limited how much the taxable value of a property can increase each year by lowering the appraisal cap from 10 percent to 5 percent. Both versions offered around $12 billion in new property tax relief.
- The new House proposal increases the homestead exemption to $100,000 while lowering the appraisal cap to 5 percent. An independent analysis by Texans for Fiscal Responsibility finds $16 billion in new tax relief.
- “It’s a great victory for taxpayers everywhere that the House has increased the Senate’s property tax relief package to $16 billion in new relief. They are now about $4 billion away from giving Texas the largest property tax cut in history,” said Tim Hardin, the president of TFR.
- While House Speaker Dade Phelan has claimed the plan provides “$21 billion” in property tax relief, Hardin explains that this “fuzzy math” was created by counting previously existing property tax relief passed in 2019.
- Any compromise between the House and Senate must move quickly. The legislative session ends on May 29.
