How Do You Spell Relief?

Earlier this week Governor Abbott signed the $18 billion property tax relief legislation agreed upon between the state House and Senate. Originally the House bill sought to reduce property tax by "compression", lowering the tax rates imposed by ISD's. The Senate sought to give property owners an exemption of $100,000 instead of the current $40,000. After much back and forth and many meetings both chambers reached a compromise. The current legislation calls for a reduction for school tax rates, and offers homeowners with a homestead exemption the $100,000 exemption. Also included as part of the bill is a tax break for non-homestead properties/owners whose property value is under $5 million. It's a three year pilot program that will place a 20% cap on annual increases to their appraised property value. That will be a welcome relief for many owners of investment properties. In addition, there will be Franchise tax savings for small businesses.

Where is this money coming from? It seems that the state will have a budget surplus of $32.7 billion at the end of this fiscal year. According to the state comptroller this is due in large part to inflation. As consumers have had to pay more for goods and services, more state sales tax was generated. Another contributor to the surplus was spikes in energy and gas prices.

Wherever it came from at least some of it will be coming back to us, that is after the November elections. Voters need to approve a constitutional amendment in order for this to take affect. Who in their right mind would vote against this? Once approved by the voters it will take affect for 2024 property taxes. You can read the full article from the Texas Tribune by clicking on this link: https://www.texastribune.org/2023/07/11/texas-house-property-tax-cuts-deal/?