Texas Senate OKs stricter limits on city, county property tax revenue

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The Texas Senate advanced a proposal Wednesday aimed at gut-checking city and county property tax bills as Republican lawmakers seek ways to rein in the state’s high property taxes.

But the bill faces an uncertain future in the state House, where lawmaking has stalled as Democratic House members have booked it out of the state to thwart a GOP-led redistricting push sought by President Donald Trump. The redrawing of congressional lines is meant to shore up the number of Republican seats and stave off any potential losses in next year’s midterm elections.

Texas senators voted 18-3 to approve Senate Bill 9, which would tighten state limits on how much more in property tax revenue cities and counties can collect each year without asking voters. That limit stands at 3.5% right now. The bill would further limit that growth to 2.5% — though only for cities and counties with at least 75,000 residents.

“The taxpayers really need the help,” state Sen. Paul Bettencourt, a Houston Republican who authored the proposal, said Wednesday. “They really need that break at this point.”

Most of the Senate’s 11 Democratic members weren’t present for the vote. Instead, nine Senate Democrats appeared at a Wednesday morning news conference in Boston protesting the redistricting push.

Earlier this year, Republican lawmakers committed to spending $51 billion over the next two years to lower property taxes levied by school districts, traditionally the biggest chunk of a property owner’s tax bill. At the urging of Gov. Greg Abbott, they’ve also been on the hunt for ways to reduce tax bills charged by localities during a 30-day special session jam-packed with other conservative priorities.

Cities and counties face growing financial pressure brought on by a slowing economy, the end of federal pandemic relief dollars, rising public safety costs and uncertainty of future federal funds. Their budgets have also strained under the state’s existing property tax revenue limits.

“I don't think that the cities have had enough time to really digest the consequences of how they’re going to be able to meet the services that their citizens need,” state Sen. Juan "Chuy" Hinojosa, a McAllen Democrat, said during debate Wednesday.

The bill now moves to the House, where it faces an uncertain future as long as the Democratic quorum break persists. There’s an appetite among top Republicans in that chamber for such a measure. State Rep. Morgan Meyer, a University Park Republican who chairs the House’s chief tax-writing committee, filed his own version of the bill earlier this week.

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