Lt. Gov. Patrick: Texas Senate Passes Property Tax Relief Plan

AUSTIN – Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick issued a statement Wednesday following the passage of Senate Bill 1 and Senate Joint Resolution 1, Property Tax Relief, both by Sen. Paul Bettencourt, R-Houston:

“I have been fighting for property tax relief since before I held elected office. I have been clear that I will not leave Austin without property tax relief targeted at homeowners through an increased homestead exemption to provide them as much relief as possible. Homeowners need property tax relief right now.

“SB 1 delivers the largest property tax cut in Texas history by combining the power of the homestead exemption and compression for homeowners. Additionally, SB 1 provides meaningful relief for businesses through compression and increasing the threshold before businesses are required to pay franchise taxes.

“With under 45 days until the school year begins, the time is now for the Senate to provide Texas teachers with much-needed supplemental payments. The Senate added a provision to SJR 1 to make sure Texas teachers get the supplemental payments they need for the next two years.

“The Texas Senate will continue to fight for homeowners, teachers, and businesses. We look forward to working with the House to pass property tax relief and supplemental payments for teachers in the coming weeks.”

SB 1, by Sen. Paul Bettencourt, increases the homestead exemption to $100,000, provides property tax compression to decrease school property tax rates, decreases the rollback rate for school districts from 2.5% to 1.75%, further decreasing school property tax rates, and doubles the threshold before businesses must pay franchise tax to $2.47 million, eliminating the tax for 67,000 small businesses. SB 1 also eliminates the no-tax-due filing requirement, saving businesses both time and money. Overall, SB 1 will provide a 43% decrease in homeowner school property taxes on average.

SJR 1, by Sen. Paul Bettencourt, is the constitutional amendment to approve the homestead exemption. SJR 1 will provide a supplemental payment for teachers of $2,000 for every full-time Texas teacher. If a teacher teaches in a district with less than 20,000 students, they will receive an additional $4,000, to help close the salary gap between urban and suburban teachers and rural teachers. Voters will make the final decision on increasing the homestead exemption and providing supplemental payments for teachers by approving the constitutional amendment in November.