Press Items: Senator Paul Bettencourt — District 7

AUSTIN, TX – Senator Paul Bettencourt released a map showing the success of the increased ISD homestead exemptions for over-65 and disabled homesteads across all 254 Texas counties. As passed by the Texas Legislature, the $140,000 general ISD homestead exemption and the additional $60,000 senior exemption were approved by voters a year ago by margins of 78% and 79%, for a total of $200,000 in exempt value. Combined with prior bills passed by Senator Bettencourt, this has resulted in 1.449 million over-65 and disabled homeowners paying no school property taxes in 2025 and 2026.

“The Senior Homestead Exemption heat map shows an amazing 227 counties where more than 60% of seniors and disabled homeowners are paying no ISD taxes. An astonishing 93 counties have 90%+ of their seniors paying zero school property taxes, across the Valley, South Texas, West Texas, the Panhandle, East Texas and Central Texas. No other state can claim this result for its seniors & disabled homeowners, because a ZERO tax bill is the best you can get!" Sen. Bettencourt said.

Counties are color-coded from 90% to 100% of over-65 and disabled homesteads paying no school property taxes, down to 30% to 50% in the higher-property-value metro areas around Austin, Dallas and Houston.

"Major urban counties like Bexar at 73%, El Paso at 87%, Tarrant at 61%, and Lubbock at 82% of their senior and disabled property taxpayers paying zero school property taxes shows how widespread this is! It’s a truly remarkable result for Texas seniors who have paid taxes for a lifetime and are worried about the affordability crisis," he added. “Importantly, these zero property tax bills will never go up. They’re not just frozen anymore, as the law has been changed by the Legislature.”

This Texas-sized tax cut was not achieved through a direct tax shift. For example, a franchise tax was NOT created to lower property taxes, as occurred in Texas 20 years ago. No taxpayer has paid new taxes as a result.

"By using general revenue surplus funds, the State budgets for higher homestead exemptions and reduced ISD M&O tax rates, which does not place the burden on local property taxpayers or school district budgets. Average ISD property tax bills for all 6.1 million Texas homesteads were reduced 13.5% in 2025," he concluded.

The study is available from Senator Bettencourt's office at: https://senate.texas.gov/members/d07/uploads/FINAL-SLGC-Sept-1st-Slide-Deck-with-graphics.pdf

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