Texas Border Business
Texas Border Business
HOUSTON, Texas — Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on July 15 outlined a property tax proposal that he said is intended to make homeownership more affordable by limiting appraisal increases and changing how public schools are funded.
Abbott said that while traveling across Texas, the top issue homeowners raised was rising property tax bills. He said that under his leadership, the state increased the homestead exemption from $15,000 to $140,000, but homeowners continue to face higher tax bills because property appraisals can increase by up to 10% each year.
“My plan restructures that for your appraisal to go up no more than 3% a year,” Abbott said. He also proposed changing the appraisal process so homes would be reappraised once every five years instead of every year.
Abbott said the largest portion of a homeowner’s property tax bill is the amount paid to the local school district. Under his proposal, homeowners would no longer pay school district property taxes on their homesteads.
“My property tax strategy would eliminate using your homestead to fund the local school district, and instead the state would be fully responsible for paying to the schools the amount that would be lost by having a zero placed on your property tax bill for which you have to pay to school districts,” Abbott said.
Responding to questions about school funding, Abbott said the Legislature provided “$8 billion more” for public education during the last legislative session and said public schools are receiving more funding than ever before, including more funding per student.
Abbott estimated that replacing local school property tax revenue with state funding would cost about $10 billion. He said recent state budget surpluses would have been sufficient to cover that amount, but added that state leaders are also working to reduce spending elsewhere in the budget.
“I know that we can find in our own government budget, just like I know in the Harris County budget or City of Houston budget, they can find ways to cut spending,” Abbott said.
Abbott also addressed school closures in some parts of Texas, saying that funding per student has remained the same while enrollment has declined in certain areas due to demographic changes. He said some communities are losing students while others are adding students and building new schools.
He said consolidating schools in areas with declining enrollment is a responsible use of taxpayer money while growing communities continue to expand educational facilities.
