AUSTIN, Texas — After months of promises, Texas lawmakers finally delivered property tax relief to many Texans.
Just not renters.
State Rep. John Bryant says he tried. Under his proposal, renters would have received a tax rebate of up to 10% of the rent they paid the previous year.
The Dallas Democrat says nearly 40% of all Texas households are rental households, including 67% in his District 114 in northeast Dallas.
“Remember the surplus is the result of sales tax collections. And rental households have contributed as much to sales tax collections as all the rest of us. So, they should share in this. And they pay property taxes through their rent,” Bryant told us on Inside Texas Politics.
While his legislation was never taken up after House and Senate leaders agreed to a property tax deal, the renter rebate was offered as an amendment during final debate for the compromise bill, but didn’t survive that either.
Teacher pay raises, or at least a one-time bump, also failed to make it into the final legislation.
Bryant tried to increase the state’s contribution on per-pupil spending in public schools by $1,000 per student. The Democrat says this could have led to a permanent raise for teachers to the tune of $4,300 per year.
“In our view, it’s irresponsible to take up a bill that is dealing with reduction in the source of funding for public schools without dealing with public education and undergirding it, underwriting it, fully,” said the Democrat.
Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick told WFAA’s Jason Whitely that teachers will get a pay raise -- but he said that lawmakers wanted to handle that topic separately from the property tax issue.
Patrick additionally acknowledged that renters will not see any savings in this property tax cut agreement, not directly, anyway.
In terms of the property tax relief bill that did pass and is waiting to be signed by the Governor, Texas homeowners are expected to pay between $1,200 and $1,450 less in property taxes.
The two main components fueling this reduction include an increase in the homestead exemption from $40,000 to $100,000 and what’s known as “compression,” or reducing the amount of tax burden on Texas homeowners by giving school districts an extra $12 Billion.
But the agreement also includes two new elements.
First, non-homesteaded properties such as investment properties, parcels of land or vacation homes that are valued at $5 million and under, including residential and commercial properties, cannot have their appraised values rise by more than 20%.
Second, legislation will also include savings on the franchise tax for small businesses and create newly-elected positions on local appraisal boards.
While Republicans have long ran the show in Austin, Bryant says there’s plenty Democrats can point to in the bill that passed that they were responsible for, including doubling the homestead exemption and forcing the Texas House to accept some exemptions.
“Remember the House bill was entirely compression, which gives away a huge amount of tax relief to skyscrapers, refineries, oil wells and things like that,” the Democrat told us. “The crisis we’re facing is that homeowners are paying way too much in property taxes, and renters are also through their rent. The crisis is not skyscrapers and refineries.”
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has promised to sign the legislation. And Texas voters will still have to approve this on the November ballot.