Legislative Priorities for the 88th Texas Legislature

With the 88th Texas Legislature already underway, the following is a list (non-exhaustive) of our current legislative priorities:

Observations:

• The base budget proposals are currently below the population and inflation spending cap
• Only one-third (1/3) of the at least $32.7 billion budget surplus (i.e. over-collected taxpayer money) is currently proposed for new tax relief
• The proposed “relief” amounts to just $9.7 billion in new property tax relief, not $15 billion as is being promoted by lawmakers:
  • $3 billion for homestead exemption increase
    • Inferior to ISD M&O compression
    • Must be readjusted constantly to keep up with inflated valuations
  • $6.7 billion in ISD M&O compression is not enough to make a significant difference in property tax bills for Texas taxpayers

TFR Supports/Recommends:

• Pass a “No-Growth” (Frozen) budget until the elimination of ISD M&O property taxes
• Use at least 90% of the budget surplus to compress ISD M&O
• Break the constitutional spending limit (if necessary) for maximum tax relief for Texas taxpayers

Observations:

• Texas Governor Greg Abbott said last fall that he wants to “eliminate school property taxes so people can own their homes”
• Texas taxpayers want it in statute to eliminate property taxes as soon as possible
• TFR believes that increasing the homestead exemption ultimately shifts the burden of funding increased spending and does not provide long-lasting tax relief
  • Historically, inflated appraisals have evaporated any savings from raising the homestead exemption

TFR Supports/Recommends:

• TFR supports both versions of legislation seeking to use 90% of the budget surplus to ‘buy down’ the ISD M&O portion of the property tax
• Both can be accomplished before the year 2030

Observation:

• Local government spending is the biggest obstacle to property tax elimination

TFR Supports/Recommends:

• TFR recommends three (3) reforms for local governments:
  • Impose a spending cap using population and inflation on all local governments
  • Lower the voter-approval tax rate to that of the No-New-Revenue tax rate
  • Freeze ISD M&O until compressed to zero (0)

Observations:

• The practice of taxpayer-funded lobbying is a massive conflict of interest that is seldom in favor of the taxpayer
• The amount of money spent by local governments on taxpayer-funded lobbying continues to increase

TFR Supports/Recommends:

• TFR supports legislation seeking to ban this practice statewide