Senate Passes $4.5 Billion Tax
Cut Package
Would raise state homestead exemption on
school taxes
by Ryan McCrimmon
The Texas
Senate on Wednesday (March 25) approved billions of dollars in property tax
cuts, the biggest piece of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s
$4.5 billion tax relief package.
Senators
gave preliminary approval to the constitutional amendment needed to approve the
property tax changes.
Senate Bill 1,
authored by Senate Finance Chairwoman Jane Nelson, R-Flower Mound, passed the
Senate 26-5. The bill devotes about $2.4 billion to increase homestead
exemptions from school property taxes.
“We
need to relieve some of this burden on homeowners, and that relief needs to
correspond with home values, now and into the future,” Nelson said.
Texas
homeowners currently receive a $15,000 homestead exemption from school property
taxes — for example, the owner of a $100,000 house would only pay school taxes
on $85,000. Nelson’s bill would change the homestead exemption rate to 25
percent of the state’s median home market value, raising the exemption to about
$33,000 in 2016. State Sen. Paul Bettencourt,
R-Houston, a co-author of the bill, estimated the larger exemption would save homeowners more
than $200 a year.
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