Billions in property tax cuts await Texas voter’s approval

A $12.7 billion package of property tax cuts goes before voters later this year, promising to deliver savings to millions of property owners in Texas suffering from skyrocketing tax bills.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed the legislation creating the cuts late last month, officially closing months of negotiations among the state’s top Republicans. But before they can go into effect, Texas voters will first have to decide in a constitutional election on Nov. 7 whether to allow the state to spend billions in taxpayer money — mainly collected from Texans during the past two years — to pay for the massive cuts. If approved, an outcome that seems likely given voters’ support of tax cuts in the past, the changes would be applied for the 2023 tax bills due in January.

Here’s what you need know to make your decision.

What are we voting on?

Earlier this month, during the second special session of the 88th Legislature, lawmakers passed three bills to spend $13.3 billion of a historic state surplus to rein in Texas property taxes, which are among the highest in the nation. The extra cash in the state coffers was attributed largely to record sales tax collections — which every person pays when making purchases in Texas — when inflation soared nationally after the pandemic. Added to $5.3 billion budgeted in 2019 to lower school tax rates, a total of $18.6 billion in tax cuts would go to property owners this year.

Senate Bill 2, at a cost of $12.7 billion, details the proposed property tax cuts, while Senate Bill 3, which costs about $600,000, adds cuts to the franchise taxes some businesses have to pay. Both were authored by state Sen. Paul Bettencourt, a Houston Republican.

These measures will not appear on the ballot. House Joint Resolution 2, by state Rep. Will Metcalf, R-Conroe, is the constitutional amendment that will go before voters in November and would authorize the state to enact the cuts in those two bills.

Proponents of the package wanted a constitutional amendment so that any changes that lawmakers might want to make to certain parts of the bill in the future would have to be approved by voters first. The amendment is also needed so that the cost of all of the tax cuts this year won’t count against spending limits imposed by voters and lawmakers on the $321.3 billion state budget for the next two years.

What’s in the plan?

There are five key parts to the tax-cuts package.

School tax compression: About $7.1 billion would be sent to Texas school districts so they can lower the taxes they levy on property owners, Bettencourt said. The move, known as “compression,” would reduce school districts’ maintenance and operations property tax rate by 10.7 cents per $100 of a property’s valuation. The M&O tax, as it’s known, helps pay for public education costs like teacher salaries and school building maintenance and makes up the largest chunk of most property owners’ tax bill.

$100,000 homestead exemption: An estimated $5.6 billion would be used to more than double the current $40,000 property tax exemption available to all Texans who own the home that serves as their primary residence. A homestead exemption is the amount a homeowner can take off the value of the house they live in before it is taxed. For example, the owner of a $350,000 home is being taxed at $310,000 under the current exemption for most homeowners. The same house would be taxed only on $250,000 under the homestead exemption approved this year.

Temporary 20% appraisal cap: The law would establish a limit on appraisals for commercial, mineral and residential properties that do not have a homestead exemption and are valued under $5 million. Texas counties’ appraisal districts would not be allowed to increase the taxable value of any of those properties by more than 20% each year, for the next three years. The program would end in 2026 unless lawmakers and voters decide to continue it.

Franchise tax exemptions: The legislation — which is not a property tax cut but was included in the package as another tax relief measure — would double the amount of money a business can make before it’s required to pay the state’s franchise tax, which is levied on larger entities doing business in Texas. That limit would go up from $1.24 million to $2.47 million. In addition, businesses that don’t meet the new threshold for having to pay franchise taxes would no longer be required to file forms to report those taxes.

Elected appraisal officials: County appraisal districts are currently appointed positions and can vary in size, with a typical board having about nine members. Under the new legislation, each appraisal district’s board of directors will now include three positions elected by a majority vote at a county general election for four-year terms. Lawmakers said the change would hold the people who oversee appraisals more accountable to the property owners their decisions affect.

If approved, how would I get my cuts?

If the changes in the tax code that require voter approval get the green light, they would mostly go into effect automatically with no action required by property owners.

The changes to the franchise tax code, the 20% appraisal cap and the M&O tax rate compression would all show up on tax bills and require no special action.

Owner-occupied properties that already have a homestead exemption would also see that benefit automatically increase from $40,000 to $100,000 with no action required.

But if a homeowner lives in their home and hasn’t gotten the homestead exemption, they need to apply for it through their county’s appraisal district office. In most cases, the exemption can be retroactive up to two years. Once a homeowner has the exemption, they do not need to reapply for it every year; it stands until the homeowner no longer lives in the home.

Editor’s Note: This article begins a three-part series from The Texas Tribune regarding Texas’s proposed property tax laws. It was originally published as one article titled “Billions in property tax cuts need Texas voters’ approval before taking effect. Here’s what you need to know.”