The Texas House pushed forward a proposal Monday aimed at containing property tax bills by putting tighter restrictions on cities and counties.
The legislation would further limit how much more in property tax revenue cities and counties can collect each year without voter approval. Under state law, that limit sits at 3.5%. The bill would take that limit down to 1%.
“I believe that we need to venture and do everything we can at the state level to provide lower taxes to our constituents,” said state Rep. Morgan Meyer, R-University Park, who carried Senate Bill 10 in the House.
The bill, which passed the Senate earlier this month, cleared the Texas House by a 78-52 vote.The Senate will either accept changes House lawmakers made to the bill or find a compromise.
Such a limit comes at a tricky time for localities. Cities and counties have already had their budgets crimped by the state’s current limit on property tax revenue enacted in 2019. The cost of paying for essential services like police and fire protection and road construction have only grown since then as the state’s population boomed. Localities have also brought in less revenue from sales taxes thanks to a slowing economy. Federal pandemic relief dollars have all but dried up, and there’s uncertainty over future federal funding.
Local officials and Democratic lawmakers raised concerns that cities’ and counties’ public safety spending and ability to recruit police officers, firefighters and paramedics as well as maintain equipment needed to respond to public safety calls would take a hit under the proposed limit. Police and fire spending tend to make up the majority of a city or county’s budget. City and county officials asked lawmakers last week to consider some kind of carveout for public safety spending.
Someone stuck an amendment in the House bill that puts a loophole in there that, under certain circumstances, allows taxes to be raised back to the original threshold.