Texas has the seventh highest property taxes in the country — a sore spot for homeowners. Lawmakers, both Democrat and Republican, worked to address the issue during the 2025 legislative session by increasing the homestead exemption.
With the approval of Texas voters in November, homeowners will get an additional $40,000 added to their exemption, while citizens with disabilities or over the age of 65 will get an additional $60,000.
That's a big deal — and Sen. Paul Bettencourt, R-Houston, says the reception has been great.
"The seniors are stopping me in my district through Austin, because they had about a thousand dollar savings and over half of them are not paying any additional property taxes for schools at this point," Bettencourt said.
For most property taxpayers in Texas, the homestead exemption is what ends up saving them the most money. That exemption applies to someone's primary residence and reduces how much of the property's value they'll pay taxes on.
Lawmakers have been patting each other on the back and touting their successes heading into an election year. But the battle is far from over, with many homeowners still complaining taxes are too high.
Bettencourt recognizes that. He says this year's move is just another cut on top of the pile that lawmakers have been working on for years.
"What the state has been doing since 2019 is to dramatically ramp up how much money is being budgeted for property tax relief," Bettencourt told The Texas Newsroom. "We're now at $51 billion, which is well into 20% of the state's budget."
Estimates from the state claim the average Texas homeowner will save around $1,700 on their property taxes each year due to the growing homestead exemption.
But that isn't the case for everyone, with some still seeing high tax bills.
Shannon Halbrook, who handles fiscal policy research for nonpartisan policy group Every Texan, thinks that while it's great to cut taxes, lawmakers must be mindful of the overall cost to the state.
"We need to be asking ourselves how much we can afford to keep cutting them," Halbrook said.
Lately it hasn't been a real issue to foot the bill for homeowners because lawmakers have been working with a budget surplus. But with these homestead exemptions now locked in to the state constitution, Halbrook is worried about what that means when the state isn't rolling in dough.
"Eventually there will be an economic downturn and they'll have to figure out how to cover all of this stuff," he said.
But for lawmakers and candidates, property taxes are a great talking point. Halbrook expects to hear more about decreasing the property tax burden in 2026 while campaigns are ongoing for statewide offices, all of Texas' state House members, and half of its state senators.
"It's easy for someone running for office to say, 'hey, we know your property taxes are still high. And even though we've cut them so much in recent years, we're just going to keep on cutting them' because, you know, it sounds good,'" Halbrook said.
In fact, Gov. Greg Abbott did just that during his reelection campaign kickoff event in Houston last month when he proposed several ways he wanted to trim property taxes — one of them huge.
"Voters in Texas should have the ability to vote on a constitutional amendment abolishing the school district property tax in Texas," Abbott said.
While that is a goal for the broader Republican Party of Texas, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick doesn't think it's a good idea.
"To get rid of all school taxes is about $40 billion, and that's what it would take for us to collect taxes to get rid of all school property taxes," Patrick said.
Since Texas doesn't have a state income tax, eliminating the school property tax would leave one option to offset the loss: increase the sales tax.
"Texas would be left with a one-legged revenue stool, with a much bigger sales tax – 20% to 25% – as our primary source of revenue," Halbrook said.
But no matter what Texas leaders talk about in the leadup to the 2026 midterms, lawmakers won't be able to make any substantial changes until the Legislature next meets in 2027.
That may seem like a long time from now, but Patrick's already rolled out a plan he's calling the double nickel, saying it'll be a top priority for Republicans in 2027: to drop the qualifying age for the senior citizens homestead exemption from 65 to 55.
"That means for an extra 10 years, from 55 to 65, your values are frozen," Patrick said. "You don't ever have to worry about appraisals anymore. And by the way, how many homeowners is that? 3.3 million homeowners."
Patrick estimates it'd cost the state under $4 billion and could save older Texas homeowners close to $10,000 over those extra 10 years.
It's important to remember that Texas doesn't have a state income tax. That makes property taxes one of the few ways taxing entities — like schools, counties and hospital districts — can bring in the revenue they need to run things.
So, while the issue will remain top of mind for Texas homeowners — and lawmakers — for years to come, there's no quick or easy fix that'll make everyone happy. Still, we're sure to hear a lot of ideas, proposals and campaign talking points on it in the leadup to next November.
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