A plan to enact the most substantive overhaul of Texas’ broken and skyrocketing property tax system may have the votes necessary to pass in the Texas House.
At public campaign events in East Texas this week, Governor Greg Abbott announced he has commitments from more than enough State Representatives necessary to pass his major property tax overhaul in the upcoming 90th session of the Texas Legislature. With Republican lawmakers from both chambers of the Texas Capitol, Gov. Abbott made the remarks to crowded rooms of taxpayers who have been demanding real and lasting relief for years. Abbott made the appearances as part of a broader push to ramp up promotion of his property tax proposal. Now it’s clear his plan is picking up notable support across the state. As of late June 2026, 89 Texas House Republicans1 and nominees have backed his “Taxpayer Empowerment” proposal, with two state senators publicly joining the campaign.
At an event in Canton, Texas,2 this week, Abbott was joined by State Reps. Brent Money (R-Greenville) and Keresa Richardson (R-McKinney), as well as the first Senator to publicly support the property tax package, Sen. Bob Hall (R-Edgewood). At the event, Abbott announced that he has “enough votes in the Texas House of Representatives to get this plan passed.” 3
Later in the week, Abbott held another event in Bullard, Texas, with several State Representatives and the second Senator to back the Governor’s plan, Sen. Bryan Hughes (R-Mineola).
This momentum comes amid widespread frustration among property owners who continue to face rising bills despite previous rounds of “relief” efforts from the Legislature. Abbott has been clear in public appearances that incremental tweaks aren’t enough, emphasizing the need for structural change, saying in Canton that “we cannot go back to Austin, Texas, and do the same thing we’ve been doing over and over and over again, and expect a different result.”
Key Elements of Abbott’s Plan
Abbott’s proposal aims to fundamentally reshape how property taxes work in Texas by empowering voters and imposing tighter restrictions on local governments. The main components include:
- Spending Limits on Local Governments: Cap annual budget growth for cities, counties, and other tax entities at the rate of population growth plus inflation, or 3.5% (whichever is lower). This is intended to force local officials to live within their means rather than continuously expanding spending at unsustainable rates (the main driver of property tax growth).
- Supermajority Voter Approval for Tax Increases: Require two-thirds approval from voters for any new property tax hikes, including those tied to bond elections. This shifts power away from local politicians and back to the people who actually pay the bills.
- Rollback Elections: Empower taxpayers to force elections to reduce tax rates. Under the plan, if 15 percent of registered voters in a jurisdiction sign a petition, it could trigger a vote to roll back rates.
- More Predictable Appraisals: Appraise properties only once every five years instead of annually, and lower the cap on annual appraisal growth for homesteads from 10 percent to 3 percent, while extending that lower cap to all properties.
- Eliminate School Property Taxes on Homesteads: Allow voters to decide via constitutional amendment whether to shift public education funding away from property taxes on homes, permanently eliminating roughly half of every homeowner’s bill. Abbott has argued, “The state should fund public education, not your homestead.”
Contrast with Other Approaches
While Abbott’s plan focuses on structural reforms and voter empowerment, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has advanced a more incremental strategy centered on expanding exemptions. Patrick’s “Operation Double Nickel” proposal includes boosting the homestead exemption further (by another $40,000 to $180,000 for school taxes) and lowering the age for senior property tax freezes from 65 to 55.
This plan, however, largely continues the Legislature’s past playbook of increasing exemptions without addressing underlying issues such as unchecked local spending, property tax growth, or appraisals. Previous exemption hikes have provided some temporary relief for some Texans, but haven’t stopped overall bills from climbing due to local spending increases.
Another option being floated by some disguises a massive tax increase on every Texan while continuing to allow government at every level to grow unchecked behind the mantra of “eliminating property taxes immediately.” Despite the punchy slogan, the idea embraces government growth and an overall increase in the tax burden on Texas taxpayers who have already been stretched near their limits.
Fiscal Discipline First
Texas homeowners have long shouldered some of the highest property tax burdens in the country, even as the state prides itself on no state income tax. Skyrocketing appraisals, insatiable appetites for more government spending, and crushing inflation have spiraled with property tax burdens into the current unaffordability crisis facing every Texan. Texas families and small businesses continue to get crushed.
But without deeper, structural changes that put fiscal discipline first, Texans will remain trapped in a cycle of ever-increasing taxes. As State Rep. Daniel Alders (R-Tyler) stated on X after joining Abbott in Bullard, “We can – and must – cut spending and pursue even more limited and efficient government. In doing so, we will make Texas more free.”4
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- https://www.gregabbott.com/governor-abbott-secures-growing-support-for-property-tax-relief-plan/ ↩︎
- https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/texas-gov-greg-abbott-touts-taxpayer-empowerment-property-tax-plan-in-bullard/ar-AA26V3jZ ↩︎
- https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1G33eMAAnG/ ↩︎
- https://x.com/DanielAldersTX/status/2072132967015833926?s=20 ↩︎
