Texas leaders say they passed property tax relief, again, after taxes went up

(The Center Square) – In the last few legislative sessions, the governor and leaders of the Texas legislature claim they passed a conservative budget and “the greatest property tax relief” in state history.

In 2023, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said the property tax relief bill the legislature passed was “the largest property tax relief package in Texas history, and likely the world,” The Center Square reported. Since then, property taxes have surged.

This legislative session, Gov. Greg Abbott made property tax relief an emergency item for the legislature to pass. On Saturday, it passed several measures, which “will deliver significant property tax relief for hardworking Texas home and business owners,” Abbott, Patrick and House Speaker Dustin Burrows said in a joint statement

“Never before has the Texas Legislature allocated more funds to provide property tax relief than they did this session," Abbott said. He thanked state lawmakers for passing a bill package he will sign into law saying it will “deliver lasting relief for Texans.”

On Saturday, the legislature passed Senate Bill 4, which increases the homestead exemption for all homeowners to $140,000, and Senate Bill 23, which increases it to $200,000 for the elderly or disabled. The legislature also passed House Bill 9, which increases tax exemptions for business inventory. Small businesses called for lawmakers to eliminate it.

The legislature also passed three joint resolutions to put constitutional amendments on the November ballot for voters to approve or reject. SJR2 and SJR 85 would amend the constitution to permanently increase homestead exemptions. HJR 1 relates to the business tax exemption.

Patrick said his priority has always been to increase the homestead exemption, which he argues provides increased protections for homeowners and reduces property taxes. Over the past ten years, the legislature increased it to $100,000; SB 4 and SB 23 increase it to $200,000 for seniors and $140,000 for non-seniors.

“The average senior homeowner will no longer pay any school property taxes for the rest of their life as long as they live in their home,” Patrick said. “Homeowners under 65 years old will now see almost 50% of their school taxes cut. Nearly 25% of our All-State Funds budget this year is going to property tax relief. We have come a long way in the last 10 years, when only a small percentage of our budget went to property tax relief.”

Burrows said the legislature advanced additional savings and that “Texas home and business owners are on their way to keeping more of their hard-earned money.”

The claims have been met with  criticism from taxpayers on social media and economists pointing out that no real property tax relief is being provided because the legislature isn’t implementing the right reforms and won’t stop spending.

According to state comptroller data, property taxes increased in 2023 and 2024 with some of the largest increases last year.

Property taxes last year increased by $5.4 billion, up 6.6% from 2023, economist Bill Peacock notes. Counties increased property taxes by 10.4%, school districts increased them by 6.4%, special districts increased them by 6.1%, and cities increased them by 3.9%, Peacock says.

Property taxes aren’t going down for many reasons, including the fact that the Republican-led legislature every year expands the size of government, increases spending and spends the state’s multi-billion-dollar surplus, Peacock and others argue.

A real solution to implement meaningful property tax reform is for the legislature to restrict state and local government spending, economist Vance Ginn argues. This includes capping “all state funds spending growth to the three-year average of population growth plus inflation, not income growth,” anything more would require a two-thirds vote in both chambers. The limits would apply to local governments and the surplus would be used to eliminate school district M&O property taxes.

The legislature has taken the opposite approach: repeatedly temporarily compressing rates and increasing the homestead exemption, which haven’t decreased taxes but merely shifted the tax burden, Ginn said.

“Texans want to own their homes – not rent them from the government forever. They want a government that lives within its means, just like they do. And they want honesty – not headlines – from their elected officials,” Ginn said.

The budget the legislature passed has come under criticism from fiscal conservatives who argue it’s “a bloated, big-government plan masquerading as conservative reform” that implements California-style budgeting, The Center Square reported.

“If we continue down this path, Texas won’t just resemble California – we’ll become it,” Ginn says.