Over the past few years, property taxes have increased dramatically for many Texans. Calls for a more permanent reform to the property tax system are increasingly frequent.
Past attempts to fix the property taxes have failed and now is the time for more decisive action, former Texas State Sen. and GOP candidate for governor Don Huffines told the Lone Star Standard.
"For decades the Texas Legislature has tried to fix property taxes but failed," Huffines said. "We must end school property taxes, cap our city and county property taxes and return Texas to a land where you own your home, business or farm and ranch instead of renting it from the government."
Considered one of the largest real estate developers in Dallas, Huffines was first elected to the Texas Senate in 2015 and served until 2019. In 2022, Huffines unsuccessfully challenged incumbent Gov. Greg Abbott in the GOP primary, according to Ballotpedia.
Huffines has recently converted his campaign for governor into an initiative, the Huffines Liberty Foundation, promoting smaller government and conservative social values.
Texas currently has the sixth highest property tax in the United States, and the property tax rate has increased by 181% over the last 20 years, according to data from Texans for Fiscal Responsibility.
Senior fiscal analyst for the think tank Every Texan, Dick Lavine, told the Austin Journal that while it is too early to panic about rapidly rising property taxes, he understands the alarm and agrees the legislature should take action to reform the property tax system. Lavine would like to see the legislature allow cities and counties to offer their own flat-dollar homestead exemption and require the disclosure of real estate sales prices to help ensure businesses and industry are paying their fair share of property taxes like homeowners.
Texas does not have a statewide property tax. Instead, each county decides their property tax rate. Analysis from taxease.com shows, for example, that Fort Bend County has a property tax rate of 2.23%, which is almost double the national average. There are five counties in Texas that have a property tax rate of 2.09% or higher, which creates a financial burden on homeowners.
