With only six days left in the second called special session real property tax relief is being lowered into a shallow grave. HB 122, the strongest legislation that the Texas House has seen in years, seeks to apply 90% of the current budget surplus and future surpluses to significant property tax relief with the goal of elimination. Despite overwhelming bipartisan support and support from grassroots groups across the state, the Texas House has decided to ignore this bill and turn its backs on Texas taxpayers.

HB 122 by Rep. Tom Oliverson (R-Cypress) was referred to the House Appropriations Committee on 8/23/21 where it has sat untouched. HB 122 has 55 bipartisan authors and coauthors yet it has been pushed aside and ignored since its referral. Surely the Texas House had a stronger bill than HB 122 that would provide significant property tax relief right?

Wrong. The bills that the legislature have passed are more “do nothing” legislation, one of which makes the tax burden worse for most Texans.

The bills which were passed by both chambers follow a familiar pattern for the Texas legislature, big promises but little to no help. SB 8 would allow those that purchase a home to receive a homestead exemption in the same year as the purchase. SB 12 carves out tax compression rates for those over 65 and the disabled. Neither of these provides any significant relief, as a matter of fact, SB 12 will ultimately raise taxes on the majority of Texas homeowners as a result of treating some as a special class. Rest assured the government is not going to collect fewer taxes, but will simply shift that burden to those not in the special class.

But what about the promise to provide property tax relief that taxpayers have been begging for years? Our only hope is in HB 122 which is currently on life support and the legislature is ready to pull the plug. There are 6 days left in the session and the possibility of any significant property tax relief is looking pretty abysmal. If HB 122 cannot get to the governor’s desk by Sunday, taxpayers will be waiting until 2023 for our next chance for property tax relief.

At TFR we have been sounding the alarm that now is the time for property tax reform for months. We have put forth a practical and attainable plan to accomplish this. This message has resounded with grassroots and even other fiscal organizations. However, the more important question is, “will the Texas legislature move on this idea?” It appears as though at least two strong bills have been filed to accomplish school property tax elimination in the second called special session.

The first of the two bills is SB 81 and its constitutional amendment pair SJR 15. These are authored by Senator Angela Paxton (R-McKinney). These two bills work in unison with each other as a constitutional amendment. In simple terms, these pieces of legislation would dedicate 90% of budget surpluses each biennium to reduce the compression rate of school property taxes. These surplus funds would only be used to reduce the compression rate percentage of school property taxes. Currently, the bill and joint resolution have no co-authors and have not been referred to a Senate committee. With time dwindling in the special session, odds are these pieces of legislation will not make it through the process if nothing is done soon.

In the House, there has been one standout bill filed that would operate in a similar manner. HB 122 by Rep. Tom Oliverson (R-Cypress) would attack the property tax problem in a similar manner. HB 122 specifically mandates using 90% of the state biennial budget surplus to reduce the compression percentage of school property taxes to the lowest level possible until it is zero. HB 122 has far better odds of passing based on the amount of support it has received in the lower chamber.

Currently, there are 54 total authors and coauthors for HB 122. There are a number of members that have refused to sign on despite bipartisan support. What is more surprising is the number of Republican members that have refused to sign on. This is perplexing because property tax elimination is part of the RPT platform. If more Republicans signed on, it would easily put the bill over the 76 author majority threshold, ensuring its passage. HB 122 has been referred to the House Committee on Appropriations but has not yet received a hearing. With time waning it is important to get this bill a hearing if anything significant is to be done on property taxes elimination this special session.

As it stands, Texans will never own their homes as long as we are mandated to pay the government perpetual rent. Will our Representatives hear our screams for help and pass this important legislation, or will they stick their fingers in their ears and ignore taxpayers?

There seems to be a common pattern in Texas politics when it comes to local governments. Whether it is increasing property taxes, subsidizing businesses, imposing mask mandates, or defunding the police, local governments seem at odds not only with the majority of taxpayers but also with the Texas state government.

Over the last few sessions, we have seen the state legislature roll back the tax rates of local governments forcing “triggered elections” that make the taxpayers aware that their local government is again raising taxes too high. We have seen Governor Abbott use executive orders to stop out-of-control covid mask mandates. We also saw legislation to prevent cities from defunding their police departments to prevent rises in violent crime.

Why does the state constantly have to step in and stop local governments from oppressing citizens? Part of the reason why is that all of the major cities in Texas (except for Ft. Worth) are Democrat-controlled, while the state government is controlled by Republicans. So it makes sense that there would be differences in policies about how to govern. However, there is a more specific problem that allows local governments to enforce bad policies. They have too much money.

That’s right, our local governments are constantly in possession of too much money! Any government can only oppress citizens to the extent to which their budget allows. This is most apparent in how homeowner’s properties are taxed. Did you know that property taxes have increased by 181% in the last 20 years?  This is because local governments are able to hide how they determine property taxes (an inconsistent appraisal system) and hide how they collect them (typically in mortgages, or rent).

This confusion for the taxpayer results in property taxes that go up every year little by little. Most people won’t notice until it is time to protest (which they make as difficult as possible). For homeowners, this means that you are stuck paying rent to the government forever and you can expect it to go up every year without much recourse available to you. So are taxpayers stuck paying rent perpetually?

No, there is a way to stop this continuing cycle of indebtedness to our local governments. We must eliminate the immoral school property tax completely. Only through the elimination of the property will taxpayers finally own their homes and end the game of “hide and seek” local governments have used against homeowners for decades on property taxes.

As TFR has been reporting this can be done without raising taxes or swapping the property tax for another consumption-based tax. This can be accomplished using surpluses that will now be a normal occurrence thanks to the recently passed state spending limit bill. The comptroller recently reported a surplus of $7.85 billion due to this spending limit. The TFR plan to eliminate the school property tax would involve paying down school property taxes with the entire surplus and dedicating every surplus to paying down school property taxes until they are eliminated.

The only way to get control of local tyrants that spend our tax money irresponsibly is to cut their legs out from underneath them. We should not give local governments the ability to play the shell game with tax rates that confuse and abuse homeowners that they are supposed to protect.

By providing school funding from elsewhere we take away the local government’s incentive to tax us to death. After all, a tyrant with no money is unable to be a tyrant because he can’t afford it. Let us defund local tyranny and shrink local governments to a level so small that we barely know they are there.