Author Topic: Property Tax Reform Passes Texas House  (Read 366 times)

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Property Tax Reform Passes Texas House
« on: May 01, 2019, 01:22:24 pm »
Texas Scorecard By Destin Sensky|April 30, 2019

“I have stated this multiple times, and I will state it again, this legislation does not lower anyone’s taxes,” said Burrows. “It’s a transparency bill, no more, no less.”

More than two weeks after their colleagues in the Texas Senate, the Texas House has passed its version of property tax reform.

Having postponed consideration on three separate occasions, House lawmakers gave tentative approval to a substantially amended Senate Bill 2 on Tuesday, legislation that would lower the rate by which local government officials can increase taxes without first securing the support of the majority of their voters.

Currently local government officials can raise taxes up to 8 percent. Should they attempt to raise taxes even higher, taxpayers can petition for an election to reject that tax increase. However, those petitions are rarely successful.

If SB 2 is passed, that rate would be lowered to 3.5 percent for cities, counties, and most taxing jurisdictions. However, the rate would not be adjusted for hospital districts or junior colleges.

Though the bill contains a provision lowering the rate to 2 percent for schools, bill sponsor – and Ways and Means Chairman – Dustin Burrows (R-Lubbock) argues the inclusion is only symbolic placeholder language. Burrows maintains that school rates are better addressed in the school finance reform legislation, House Bill 3, which is currently in the Texas Senate.

In laying out the legislation on the floor of the House, Burrows repeatedly insisted that while the legislation provided tools taxpayers can use to prevent future property tax increases, they won’t actually reduce tax burdens.

“I have stated this multiple times and I will state it again, this legislation does not lower anyone’s taxes,” said Burrows. “It’s a transparency bill, no more, no less.”

The bill’s name, The Texas Taxpayer Transparency Act, now seems aptly more fitting for that very reason. Republican leaders in the Texas House seem hellbent on watering down the reformative aspects of the bill as originally filed and  to returning as little as possible of the $9 billion surplus in state government coffers back to taxpayers.

And perhaps it is for that reason that a small number of lawmakers in both parties sought to amend the legislation to provide more of the much needed—and long promised—permanent reform.

More: https://texasscorecard.com/state/property-tax-reform-passes-texas-house/