The 88th legislative session began on Jan. 10 and will end on May 29, and one of the legislature's top priorities will be addressing the state’s budget with an unprecedented $33 billion surplus now brought into deliberation. Both the House and Senate released their proposals for the next two years, appropriating hundreds of billions in state and federal funding for border security, pay increases for certain public workers and property tax cuts.
According to CBS News, Texas lawmakers revealed Wednesday that $15 billion of the state’s $33 billion surplus could go toward property tax relief, although the details of expenditures still have yet to be ironed out.
The Chron reported that $16,799,557 was listed as property tax relief in the first draft released from the state’s lead budget writers, which will expire on Aug. 31, 2024.
Furthermore, during Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick's inauguration, he announced that the Senate would be proposing the homestead property exemption be raised from $40,000 to $70,000, which would cost a total of $3 billion, CBS News reported.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott campaigned for re-election on the promise of using the state’s surplus to alleviate property taxes. The governor pledged to return half of the surplus to taxpayers, $27 billion at the time, to provide property tax cuts.
“We now have the largest budget surplus in the history of our great state. That surplus does not belong to the government – it belongs to the taxpayers,” Abbott wrote in an Aug. 31 Twitter post. “We will use that budget surplus to provide the largest property tax cut in Texas history.”
Although Abbott and Patrick have the same goal of alleviating property taxes, Patrick has differed in the amount of surplus used and the means of accomplishing this goal. Abbott has vocalized his support for property tax compression while Patrick is in favor of homestead exemption.
Speaker Dade Phelan has recommended that the surplus be used for infrastructure, and has yet to show support for the senate's proposal of an increase in homestead exemption. Phelan has warned that using the state’s surplus to lower property taxes could prove to cause future issues. Currently, Texas’ surplus is more than expected due to inflation and the United States is likely headed for a recession. Phelan made the point that the inflated surplus money came from sales tax, and if spent on property taxes, there could be future budgeting issues.
