On June 27, Governor Greg Abbott issued a statement announcing that he is calling a second Special Session of the Texas Legislature. The governor's announcement highlighted the accomplishments of the legislature, but emphasized the need for property tax relief as the House and Senate did not reach an agreement on the matter during the first Special Session.
According to Abbott's announcement, the second Special Session will focus on delivering property tax relief to Texas within two agenda items. The first item is legislation that puts Texas "on a pathway to eliminate school district maintenance and operations property taxes." The second item restricts the means for relief to "reducing the school district maximum compressed tax rate," which involves using surplus funds to 'buy-down' or compress the effective property tax rate.
"After yet another month without the House and Senate sending a bill to my desk to cut property taxes, I am once again putting the agreed upon school district property tax rate cuts on the special session agenda," Abbott said in his announcement. "Unless and until the House and Senate agree on a different proposal to provide property tax cuts, I will continue to call for lasting property tax cuts through rate reductions and working toward eliminating the school property tax in Texas. Special sessions will continue to focus on only property tax cuts until property tax cut legislation reaches my desk."
On June 2, Abbott joined the Texas Public Policy Foundation for a fireside chat to recap the major achievements in the 88th regular session and to discuss priorities for all that’s to come in special session #1, according to a press release from the Office of the Governor. At the event, the governor touted a plan for property tax relief and vowed to put Texas "on the pathway to eliminate property taxes."
Texas Public Policy Foundation has proposed a similar plan to eliminate the school maintenance and operations (M&O) property tax gradually, which currently constitutes a significant portion of the local property tax burden. Compression of the M&O property tax rate is the main focus of the plan intends to use surplus funds from general revenue-related sources at the state level to gradually buy-down the effective tax rate over time. This approach ensures that top priorities like public education continue to receive adequate funding. Most importantly, TPPF says its proposal does not involve lowering one tax only to increase another. Instead, the state would increase its contribution to public education funding, while taxpayers would be protected from excessive spending.
Abbott has continued to publicly reiterate his support for eliminating M&O property taxes in Texas and in a June 26 Twitter post he wrote, "I'm on a mission to eliminate property taxes that fund public school operations. We have the largest surplus in America. We can fund schools with abundant other revenues & by cutting spending."
On June 28, Abbot announced on Twitter that the second Special Session was necessary to deliver the "largest property tax cut in Texas history."
