We keep hearing about property tax reform coming out of Austin, but there's still no guarantee your bill is going down.
Legislation to cap the growth rate of property taxes is flying through the Texas Senate.
“Slowing the growth rate of property taxes is an essential element of what I consider any tax relief measure,” says Dr. Vance Ginn, director of the Center for Economic Prosperity at the Texas Public Policy Foundation. “If you don't slow the growth, you certainly can't lower them either.”
“This is going to cut the growth rate of property taxes substantially, which is a great reform,” he says. “But what we would also like to see, and taxpayers across the state, is actually lower property tax bills and I think there's plenty of room to do that as well.”
The TPPF is proposing solutions it says will lower bills.
“If we slowed the growth rate of state spending in general revenue to about four percent growth in each biennium and use any money above that to toward lowering the school maintenance and operations property tax, then we could actually pay lower property tax bills,” says Ginn.