Austin, TX – Senator Paul Bettencourt (R-Houston) announces that while the current National inflation rate is 8.6%, millions of under-65 Texas Homesteads should see their Independent School District (ISD) tax bills cut this Fall "as we will see nearly $500 of property tax relief on their property tax bill which will yield a real cut on the average ISD school tax bill for 3.5 Million Texans!", said Senator Bettencourt. In May of this year, Texas' Voters overwhelmingly approved Propositions 1 and 2, which provided direct tax cuts to homeowners with homestead tax bills in 2022 and 2023. 2.1 Million over-65 or disabled homeowners will receive the overall benefits of the state's compressed property tax rate for school maintenance and operations (M&O) in 2023. Proposition 2 increased the statewide school homestead exemption from $25,000 to $40,000, meaning that over 3.5 million under-65 homestead homeowners will receive this tax cut this year. My Senate office calculations indicate an actual cut of $44 on average for an average $301,000 taxable homestead in Texas despite massive appraised value increases across the state. This average is based upon statewide TEA data for every school district, and my offices' analysis of the top 25 ISDs showed a range of cuts from $107 to $8. These calculated cuts comes before Cities and Counties set their tax rates in the Fall, which could save the average taxpayer hundreds of more dollars on their tax bills.

"The Cavalry is coming over the Hill for Texas Homesteads in the Fall, just like in an old John Wayne movie!" said Senator Paul Bettencourt. "Because of the passage of Prop 1 and 2 in May, 3.5 Million homesteads will on average pay less on their school tax bills this year than they did last year. Over-65 homeowners are frozen this year, but will get an actual property tax cut in 2023, too." He added.

Property Appraisals are rising amidst a booming Texas economy, but taxpayers can be assured that property tax rates are on the way down to offset these increases. This is attributed to the significant reforms contained in SB 2 and HB 3 that the legislature passed in 2019, and the additional property tax legislation that was passed in 2021. In fact there are 16 cents of property tax relief, overall a $482 savings compared to last year's tax rate.

"Lawmakers have given property owners valuable protections against rising tax bills in this red hot real estate market, but there is no substitute for vigilance. Taxpayers must be prepared to weigh in with their local taxing jurisdictions if they believe tax rates are too high," stated Dale Craymer, President of Texas Taxpayers and Research Association. Note: TTARA supplied county and city penny rate reduction estimates.

The no-new-revenue-rate is the rate that provides the same amount of money to a taxing entity this year as last year. As Texans are having to be extra careful with their dollars due to very high inflation, government entities should be doing the same thing or go to the voters for adoption. "I am calling on all Cities and Counties to adopt the no-new-revenue-rate, it will save the taxpayers' money!" concluded Senator Bettencourt.

To check on your property tax bill, please visit the Texas property tax database. Click below:
www.texas.gov/living-in-texas/property-tax-directory/

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