Texas Republican leaders are pledging property tax relief along with teacher pay raises this session, but critics say 'show me the money.'
Lieutenant Gov. Dan Patrick is proposing nearly $4 billion to cover teacher pay raises, but none of the property tax bills include public education funding.
“The comptroller projected the Legislature will have an additional $9 billion in general revenue money to spend, and then there's the record $15 billion in the rain day fund,” says Clay Robison, spokesperson for the Texas State Teachers Association .
He insists schools will need even more money if property tax growth is capped.
“They're performing public services, many of which are ordered by the same Legislature that now wants to limit their ability to pay for them.”
“You can't simply trade off property tax revenue for state revenue,” says Robison. “That's a good start, but schools need a net increase in revenue, which means the state needs to start talking about exactly how they're going to spend all that revenue.”