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Dallas City Hall | Photo by Sam Judy<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\tOverview:<\/p>\n
Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s property tax-cut platform, the centerpiece of his 2026 campaign, aims to make it harder for cities and counties to raise property taxes, eradicate school property taxes for homeowners, and slow growth in property values. Abbott’s proposals could potentially hit places seeing the most growth the hardest, and localities could ask voters to allow them to bust the spending cap if there’s a pressing need to boost spending. Abbott also wants to give voters a bigger say in whether their taxes go up or down, and his platform has been met with mixed reception from tax policy experts.<\/p>\n
Dallas City Hall | Photo by Sam Judy<\/p>\n
FORT WORTH \u2014 Gov.\u00a0Greg Abbott<\/a>, as part of his reelection campaign, wants to make it harder for Texas cities and counties to raise property taxes \u2014 a move that would put local governments in an even tighter financial bind as the state grows.<\/p>\n That goal is a key tenet of Abbott\u2019s property tax-cut platform, the centerpiece of his 2026 campaign. Abbott has also called for eradicating school property taxes for homeowners and slowing growth in property values. Some conservative groups and lawmakers have embraced the platform, which has been met with mixed reception from tax policy experts.\u00a0<\/p>\n Much of Abbott\u2019s proposals are an extension of ideas lawmakers have tried in the past. In a bid to rein in city and county tax bills, lawmakers in 2019 enacted tighter limits on how much more in property taxes cities and counties can collect each year without asking voters. On Tuesday, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who leads the Texas Senate,\u00a0announced<\/a>\u00a0his own plans to drive down taxes that focused on increasing tax cuts for homeowners.<\/p>\n Local governments like cities and counties are deeply reliant on property taxes to help pay for services like public safety, libraries and parks. Cities and counties are already facing financial pressure under the tighter property tax limits. A slowing economy, inflation and uncertainty around future federal funds have also complicated their finances.<\/p>\n \u201cLocal property taxes are the foundation of essential community services \u2014 they keep police and firefighters on duty, streets maintained, and trash collected,\u201d said Monty Wynn, who heads the Texas Municipal League, a lobbying group that represents more than 1,100 cities and towns. \u201cEvery dollar helps keep our neighborhoods safe and maintain the quality of life that residents and taxpayers expect. We look forward to working with our state legislative partners to keep Texas communities strong.\u201d<\/p>\n There are signs that the approach, combined with billions of state dollars in school tax relief, has at least\u00a0kept property tax bills in check<\/a>. The typical Texas homeowner paid less in property taxes last year than they did just before the COVID-19 pandemic,\u00a0according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau<\/a>. The median tax bill in most of the state\u2019s metropolitan areas also fell in that time.<\/p>\n Still, cities and counties have increasingly moved into Republican lawmakers\u2019 crosshairs on the tax front. Abbott and GOP legislators have grown frustrated that, for all the billions of dollars they\u2019ve plugged into cutting school property tax bills, tax bills remain high, at least in part because city and county taxes have continued to grow.<\/p>\n For example, the average Dallas County homeowner paid about 10% less in property taxes to Dallas Independent School District this year than they did in 2018 when adjusting for inflation, a Tribune analysis shows. But their total tax bill climbed by about 7% owing to increases in city and county taxes, along with other local taxes.<\/p>\n A spending cap on local governments\u00a0<\/p>\n To further rein in local tax bills, Abbott seeks an idea he has long sought: a spending cap on local governments. Abbott has called for tying local government spending increases to the rate of population growth plus inflation or 3.5%, whichever is less. The idea is to force cities and counties to prioritize core services using existing revenue, the Abbott campaign said.<\/p>\n \u201cLocal government spending is the problem,\u201d said James Quintero, policy director at the conservative Texas Public Policy Foundation\u2019s Taxpayer Protection Project. \u201cLocal government spending limits are the solution.\u201d<\/p>\n Abbott hasn\u2019t been prescriptive of the exact mechanics of how such a spending cap would work. What he\u2019s proposing is separate from the state\u2019s existing cap on how much cities\u2019 and counties\u2019 property tax revenue can grow each year.<\/p>\n The spending limit could potentially hit places seeing the most growth the hardest. Fast-growing cities and towns like\u00a0Princeton<\/a>, Celina and Leander would hypothetically not have been allowed to exceed the 3.5% spending cap had it been in place in the years following the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a Tribune analysis. Three of the state\u2019s largest cities \u2014 Houston, San Antonio and Fort Worth \u2014 would also have been constrained by the cap. Other cities like Dallas, El Paso, Corpus Christi and Plano could have exceeded the cap last year thanks to slower population growth.<\/p>\n Only parts of the state that have consistently lost residents in the last several years \u2014 mostly rural areas in the Panhandle and West Texas \u2014 would\u2019ve been allowed to regularly exceed the cap, the Tribune\u2019s analysis shows.<\/p>\n Localities could ask voters to allow them to bust the spending cap if there\u2019s a pressing need to boost spending, the Abbott campaign said.<\/p>\n Some tax policy experts said it might be easier for lawmakers to tighten the state\u2019s existing limits on how much more in property tax revenue cities and counties can collect each year without asking voters. Right now, that cap stands at 3.5%. Tax revenue collected from new construction is doesn\u2019t count toward the cap. City and county officials have said the 3.5% cap has contributed to\u00a0considerable strain on their budgets<\/a>. Lawmakers this year tried to take that cap down to 2.5% but couldn\u2019t agree on other parts of the legislation.<\/p>\n Tightening that cap would be a fair way to curb property tax bills because it doesn\u2019t favor one kind of property owner over another, said Manish Bhatt, a senior tax policy analyst at the conservative Tax Foundation.<\/p>\n Abbott wants voters to have final say on all tax increases\u00a0<\/p>\n Abbott also wants to give voters a bigger say in whether their taxes go up or down.\u00a0<\/p>\n If Abbott got his way, voters would get a direct say on any tax increase, which would have to clear a two-thirds vote at the ballot box.<\/p>\n \u201cYour property taxes should never be increased without you being able to vote on it,\u201c Abbott said at an event in Fort Worth in early December.<\/p>\n Now, cities and counties only must ask voters if they want to exceed the state\u2019s 3.5% cap on local property tax revenue increases, and it only takes a simple majority for those increases to pass. If a property tax increase falls below that cap, cities and counties can do so without asking voters.<\/p>\n Requiring any tax increase to clear a two-thirds majority vote is a nearly impossible task. Local officials and tax policy experts have warned in the past that such a threshold would make it easy to kill any measure aimed at providing basic services, though such a move would be fair in the sense that it would theoretically give every type of property owner the same benefit.<\/p>\n Some 46 school districts and cities asked voters for permission to adopt a higher tax rate in November, according to a partial Tribune tally of tax-rate elections held across the state. Voters rejected 26 and approved 20. Under Abbott\u2019s proposal, all but one would have failed.<\/p>\n In some ways, that means voters would have less control over whether key services get funded, observers said.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think that a small minority of voters should get to veto the preferences of a majority of voters,\u201d said Adam Langley, associate director of tax policy at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy. \u201cTaxpayers would be blocked from getting the local services they want.\u201d<\/p>\n To others, Abbott\u2019s platform means giving voters more control to lower taxes. Another idea on Abbott\u2019s wishlist would allow voters to call an election to reduce their city or county tax rate if 15% of registered voters sign a petition.<\/p>\n That move would put the power to cut taxes \u201cin the hands of the everyday person,\u201d Quintero said.<\/p>\n