Sen. Bettencourt property tax relief bills advance out of committee
March 16, 2023 | Austin, TX
Senator Paul Bettencourt (SD 7) explained the Senate’s unprecedented $16.5 billion property tax bills in the Senate Finance Committee hearing on March 15. After hours of testimony, SB 3 and SB 4, worth $15 billion in property tax relief, were each passed out of the Senate Committee on Finance, chaired by Senator Joan Huffman, (R-Houston) on a 17-0 bipartisan vote. SB 5, the $1.5 billion business tax relief bill, will be considered on March 20.
“I want to thank the regular citizens of Texas that took the time out of their schedules to come and support $15 billion of property tax relief, and also thank all the members of the Senate Finance Committee for listening to them and voting out SB 3 and SB 4,” said Senator Bettencourt.
SB 3 was signed by all 31 Senators (as Joint Authors) and would raise the Homestead Exemption 75 percent to $70,000 for 5.72 million homeowners. SB 3 will also implement the voter-approved Homestead Exemption increase from $25,000 to $40,000 for all over-65 and disabled homesteads from Propositions 1 and 2 in May of 2022. In addition, SB 3 now triples the over-65 and disabled Homestead Exemption from $10,000 to $30,000 and that saves them $1,000 per-year, for as long as they own the home.
SB 4 will provide an additional $5.38 billion in ISD tax rate compression and will reduce recapture by expanding the school finance band to 20 percent. Rate compression benefits all taxpayers and reduces recapture by funding additional Maximum Compressed Rate (MCR) compression in Finance Formulas.
“This is a little bit of history today. This is the first time I’ve shown up to a hearing with so many bills on the agenda, and we’re registered in support of every single one...I’m testifying in support [of all the bills] as a package,” said Texas Taxpayers and Research Association (TTARA) President, Dale Craymer. “It provides balanced relief for all taxpayers - rate compression obviously benefits all taxpayers.”
SB 3 and SB 4 head to the full Senate next. SB 5 will be heard March 20.