Texas to cut taxes for homes and businesses

 Houston Chronicle:

Texas senators on Wednesday unanimously approved Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s agenda on property tax cuts this legislative session, which would pump billions of state dollars into public schools and give bigger tax breaks for homeowners and business owners.

“This is off-the-charts, incredible property tax relief for millions of Texas homeowners,” said state Sen. Paul Bettencourt, a Houston Republican and Patrick’s point person on property taxes.

Before the session started, Republican leaders made it clear they wanted the Legislature to use part of a historic state surplus of nearly $33 billion to bring down property taxes. Patrick’s $16.5 billion package — contained in three separate priority bills — is the Senate’s proposal on how to do it.

The package’s most popular component among senators is Senate Bill 3, a proposal to raise the state’s homestead exemption for school districts. That bill — carried by Bettencourt — would raise the amount of a home’s value that can’t be taxed from $40,000 to $70,000, with an additional $20,000 bump for seniors. The proposal would save a homeowner who pays the state’s average school tax rate an additional $341 on their annual tax bill — and save seniors another $227 each year.

Democrats joined Republicans to pass all three bills.
...

This will help to some extent due to the increase in taxes because of the inflation in the value of homes in Texas. 

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