Governor Greg Abbott has now become a loud and vocal supporter for the complete elimination of property taxes in Texas.
Speaking recently at the conservative Texas Public Policy Foundation, Abbott said that property taxes are immoral and should be eliminated.
“We must go big. We must dream big. Dream the possibility that we can eliminate property taxes in Texas," said Abbott. "You have got to dream it and then you have got to do it. And so what I say we do is we use that 17 billion to drive down your property tax rates. If we do that, that will cut your property tax rate per school m and o by 29%. That will put us on a pathway where in the ensuing sessions we will be able to get to zero for your property tax rate,” Abbott continued.
What would the complete elimination of property taxes in Texas mean? How could we get there? And who suffers? Who pays the bills and who loses services? What would it do to the Texas Economy?
To get some answers I turned to Chandra Villanueva. She is the director of policy and advocacy at Every Texans.
She said this is not only about ending property taxes. “This is all about defunding our schools. We will never be able to fully eliminate property taxes because the state does not levy a property tax.”
Villanueva said even if Texas eliminates the main portion of the school maintenance and operation tax, there will still be the property taxes for school districts bonds.
“There will still be city and county property taxes, hospital districts, community college districts. So they're using this rhetoric about eliminating property taxes. But what the goal is really defunding our schools,” she said.
