Advocates of property tax relief questioned whether the Texas Legislature has done enough to reduce the property tax burden in a Senate Finance Committee hearing last week.
“Property tax revenue is up $20 billion since 2018,” testified Bill Peacock, representing Texans for Fiscal Responsibility. “What the Legislature has been doing over the last five years is not working to provide long term relief.”
The Finance Committee, chaired by state senator Joan Huffman (R-Houston), held its hearing in response to interim charges issued by Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick. He instructed the committee to “identify the best combination to further increase the amount of homestead exemption and compression to continue cutting Texans' property taxes.”
In 2023, the Texas Legislature dedicated $12.7 billion for cutting school property taxes. However, there was some debate at the hearing as to how much relief resulted from their efforts.
Vance Ginn, with Ginn Economic Consulting, used data from the Texas Comptroller’s office that showed property taxes increased this year by about $165 million dollars despite the $12.7 billion cost. Peacock used the same data to show that school taxes only fell by $4.1 billion.
Sen. Paul Bettencourt (R-Houston) took exception to both figures.
“I’m curious why we keep seeing stuff from your organization that doesn’t use the Comptroller numbers,” Bettencourt said to Ginn. “The bottom line is that taxes levied went from $81.888 billion down to $81.452. But you’re saying it is the reverse.”
After Ginn pointed out he was using the latest numbers from the Comptroller’s website, the Comptroller’s office admitted it had given the Senate different data than it had posted online. The Comptroller also noted that both sets of data are incomplete.
After the hearing, Peacock posted a statement that “Bettencourt seemed very anxious to make sure that what Texas political leaders loudly proclaimed as 'the largest property tax cut in Texas history' actually cut property taxes.”
John Bonura, a policy analyst with the Texas Public Policy Foundation, explained that one of the problem with tax relief efforts by the Legislature was a lack of tax reform.
“We believe that you cannot separate tax relief from tax reform,” he said. “A lot of reforms should focus heavily on local governments by limiting their ability to raise taxes, such as lowering the threshold that would trigger a voter tax rate approval election.”
Concern about property taxes was echoed by Jennifer Rabb, president of the Texas Taxpayers Association, whose organization represents the business community.
“The property tax is the least desirable tax from an economic growth perspective,” she said. “It is a direct tax on the thing that will make Texas better off, capital investment.”
The Texas House of Representatives Select Committee on Sustainable Property Tax Relief recently announced it would hold a hearing on this issue as well. The hearing is scheduled for Thursday, September 26 at 10:00 a.m. in the Texas Capitol Extension.
