According to a study released this week by state Sen. Paul Bettencourt (R-Houston ), property taxes have increased over the past ten years, but so has the number of Texas individuals who don’t pay any estate taxes to school districts.
According to” a first of its kind nationwide data collection work” prepared by Bettencourt’s company and presented to the Texas Senate’s Local Government Committee on Tuesday, the state collected practically$ 89.5 billion in property tax revenue last year, an 83 percent increase over the previous year’s total of$ 48.8 billion. The average independent school district ( ISD ) tax bill has decreased while overall levies have increased, as has the percentage of Texans who don’t pay ISD property taxes.
A landscape for Bettencourt’s research is an election routine that emphasizes affordability and housing costs.
By any standard, this is a victory, Bettencourt claimed.
History and outcomes
Bettencourt is the chairman of the Senate Local Government Committee, which met on Tuesday in the Texas Capitol to explore the outcomes of 2015’s estate tax relief legislation.
Texas citizens are reaping the benefits, according to Bettencourt’s presentation, after decades of state regulations that typically combines two strategies for reducing local property tax rates: compression, which uses state funds to lower local property tax costs, and rises to the homestead exemption, a tax break for homeowners ‘ primary residence.
The Legislature increased the homestead exemption from$ 15, 000 in 2015 to$ 140, 000 for regular cottages and$ 200, 000 for people who are disabled or over 65 in 2025 as a result of a series of bills.
According to the lecture, about a third of all farmsteads don’t spend ISD property taxes. ISD levies across the state decreased slightly from$ 41.66 billion in 2024 to$ 41.65 billion in 2025.
The majority of the typical home tax bill is made up of school districts.
The average annual ISD property tax bill for the standard farm has decreased by about 13.6 percentage, from$ 1, 037 in 2024 to$ 896 in 2025.
Mature people and those with disabilities are particularly benefited from tax savings. Homeowners in Texas who are disabled or over 65 saw yet greater tax savings, with a typical tax bill reducing from$ 565 to$ 380 on average.
Additionally, Harris County’s homeownership rate increased by 164 percentage in all of the country’s biggest districts.
Critiques
State Sen. Molly Cook (D-Houston ) criticized the state’s compression strategy and advocated for greater local authority control over taxation, while committee members typically confined themselves to questioning panelists.
The Legislature has promised to actually reduce property taxes for the past seven times. We’ve backed that promise with an astonishing$ 51 billion. And what do we need to prove it?” Cook remarked.
Jeramy Kitchen, president of Texas Policy Research, criticized special exemptions as a way to” shift” the tax base rather than lower local government spending.
The tax burden is not eliminated by increasing exemptions for one party without restraining investing. The problem is more and more on the home owners, who are still taxable, according to Kitchen on X.
Lt. Gov. The leader of the Texas Senate, Dan Patrick, has always favored deductions over encoding and other forms of property tax reduction. In 2023, Patrick criticized plans to use the government’s budget surplus to lower rates and advocated for a lift of the homestead deduction in opposition to the Texas House management. When the Legislature convenes in 2027, Patrick requested that the deduction for homesteads be increased even further last year.
2026 Finals
In an election cycle that was primarily focused on the cost of living, including property taxes, Bettencourt made his observations public.
Governor Gina Hinojosa (D-Austin ), the state representative for this year’s Democratic nominee for governor, has blamed her Republican challenger, governor-elect. Greg Abbott, in response to higher property income. Abbott has launched a campaign to help the Legislature’s report on tax relief and declare support for a complete elimination of homeownership’s property taxes in school districts.
Don Huffines, the Republican candidate for the position in November and Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts, has also made property tax relief a significant component of his campaign.
