Gov. Greg Abbott, meanwhile, has proposed tackling rising appraisals and local tax increases.  Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick announced a property tax reform plan aimed at increasing the homestead exemption for millions of Texas homeowners.   The plan falls short of many of the elements of the property tax cut proposal introduced by Gov. Greg Abbott just last month.   At a Tuesday press conference, Patrick outlined reforms that build on past efforts to raise homestead exemptions. He also introduced a new initiative known as “Operation Double Nickel.” view article

2025 Operations Funding Election (Proposition A)  Northwest ISD has called an operations funding election to provide voters with the opportunity to decrease class sizes in exchange for a 3-cent increase to the tax rate. Because of continued tax rate compression, voter approval of the measure would still result in a tax rate decrease from 2024. Combined with a $40,000 increase to the homestead exemption, most homeowners are expected to pay less in property taxes in 2025. view article

Gov. Greg Abbott wants a tighter lid on home values. Tax policy experts warn that’s a bad idea.  Gov. Greg Abbott wants to put a tighter lid on how fast property values can rise in a bid to deliver property tax relief to homeowners and businesses — but tax policy experts across the political spectrum warn the proposal wouldn’t address the root causes of higher tax bills and would backfire with severe consequences.  A property’s value is a key part of the equation that forms a property owner’s tax bill. That bill is determined by multiplying the property value by the tax rate set by school districts, cities, counties and other taxing jurisdictions.  Texas property owners have seen steep jumps in their appraisals since the start of the decade as the state’s economy boomed, and have complained that those higher property values are driving their tax bills. Homeowners saw persistent jumps in their home values as fierce competition for homes put pressure on Texas’ limited housing stock and drove up prices. Those increases have since cooled, but remain a source of angst for property owners. view article

Attorney General Ken Paxton is escalating his confrontation with local governments over property tax compliance, launching a sweeping investigation into nearly 1,000 Texas cities.   This comes just months after previously ordering four municipalities to pause their newly adopted tax rates amid allegations of audit violations.   Paxton’s office said the widened review is aimed at ensuring strict adherence to Senate Bill 1851, the new state law that bars any city out of audit compliance from raising property taxes above the no-new-revenue rate. view article

While the largest portion of any Austinite’s property tax bill goes toward the local school district, almost half of what a local homeowner pays toward education actually leaves Austin, through a decades-old program called recapture. view article

Texas Governor Greg Abbott has proposed a series of property tax changes for people living in the state. Speaking during an event launching his reelection campaign on Sunday, Abbott, a Republican, announced his intention to give voters more power to set tax rates including via referendums and other votes. view article

Texas Governor Greg Abbott formally launched his campaign last week to be elected to a record fourth term. In a campaign swing that began in Houston and continued in Tyler and Temple, Abbott has focused on property tax reform. While the state legislature has cut school property taxes for homeowners over the years, and for businesses starting next year, many Texans still believe their property taxes are too high. view article

Gov. Greg Abbott announced he wants to give voters the chance to completely abolish school property taxes for homeowners. It's part of his five-point plan to address property tax reform that he will be campaigning on as he runs for reelection. view article

Cash-strapped Texas city defies AG warning not to raise taxes  Citing a new state law, Attorney General Ken Paxton told four cities to cancel planned tax hikes. But La Marque leaders say their tax increase is critical to keeping the city afloat financially. view article

Citing a new state law, Attorney General Ken Paxton told four cities to cancel planned tax hikes. But La Marque leaders say their tax increase is critical to keeping the city afloat financially. view article

Five school districts in the San Antonio area asked voters for permission to access additional cents on their tax rate in order to boost funding to operate schools this November. Only one of them succeeded. view article

Voters in the East Central Independent School District rejected a property tax increase Tuesday that would’ve helped the fast-growing district address a budget deficit and cover basic costs. Results show that more than 55% of voters opposed the proposition, known as a voter approved tax rate election or VATRE. view article

DALLAS — Texas voters this week showed wariness toward raising property taxes — and embraced cutting them.  Voters across the state shot down bids by school districts and cities to increase funds to hire teachers and police officers, pave roads and keep schools humming. More than half of those measures failed in Tuesday’s elections, according to a Texas Tribune analysis.  The most dramatic failure came out of Austin, where voters in one of the state’s most liberal cities rejected a measure to boost tax bills to tackle homelessness, bolster public safety and close a multi-million dollar budget gap — a stunning rebuke against Austin City Hall.  At the same time, Texas voters handed homeowners and business owners significant property tax breaks by wide margins. view article

The propositions include restrictions on the creation of certain taxes, new tax exemptions, investments on water infrastructure and dementia research.  The propositions include restrictions on the creation of certain taxes, new tax exemptions, investments on water infrastructure and dementia research. view article

Below are the races on ballots in Collin, Dallas, Denton and Tarrant counties, along with 17 state propositions and one state senate race. view article

Voters in the Socorro Independent School District narrowly rejected a tax measure that would have increased funding for the financially troubled district, leaving district leaders scrambling to move forward without the additional revenue. The district’s voter approval tax ratification election — or VATRE – asked voters to authorize an increase to the operations portion of their tax rates beyond the state’s limit, while reducing the debt payment tax by an equal amount. State law requires that voters approve such a step. view article

Tuesday’s vote is part of a push by Texas lawmakers to rein in the state’s high property taxes.  Texas homeowners and businesses are poised for bigger tax breaks.  Voters are on track Tuesday night to approve a constitutional amendment to raise the state’s homestead exemption, meaning the amount of a home’s value that can’t be taxed to pay for public schools, from $100,000 to $140,000 — shaving hundreds of dollars off of the biggest chunk of the typical homeowner’s property tax bill. Homeowners above the age of 65 or living with disabilities looked primed to see even bigger cuts after voters signed off on a separate amendment. view article

Spring Hill ISD voters will decide this November whether to approve a new bond package and a property tax rate increase. The district says the funds would support academic programs, facility upgrades and student services. Proposition A is the voter-approval tax rate election. Spring Hill ISD is asking voters to consider a 3.2-cent tax increase per $100 of taxable property value. The increase would provide additional funding for academic programs, extracurricular activities and student support services. view article

The Liberty Hill Independent School District is asking voters to weigh in on a proposed tax rate increase on Nov. 4. If passed, the measure, which appears on the ballot as Proposition A, would generate an additional $10.7 million in tax revenue for the 2025-26 school year. view article

The 5th Circuit last year overturned its previous ruling that allowed racial groups to band together to challenge voting maps, laying the groundwork for Texas’ mid-decade redistricting. view article

Denton ISD leaders make no bones about Proposition A, the sole school district item on a beefy Nov. 4 ballot: It’s a 5-cent tax rate increase. Denton ISD Superintendent Susannah O’Bara and Deputy Superintendent Jeremy Thompson, who oversees the district’s financial operations, were just as plain about the reason for taking the tax hike to voters: The district has already “pulled the other levers” to cut their expenses over three years of deficit budgets. This school year, Denton ISD is operating with a $15 million budget deficit. view article

A majority of the proposed constitutional amendments address tax cuts for homeowners and businesses.  On Nov. 4, Texas voters will get the final say on 17 constitutional amendments — usually listed as statewide propositions at the top of the ballot — including billions of dollars in property tax cuts for homeowners and businesses.  Early voting begins Oct. 20 and runs through Oct. 31.  Earlier this year, a two-thirds majority of the state Legislature passed the joint resolutions calling for the constitutional amendment elections, along with the state’s budget for the next two years, which includes $51 billion for property tax cuts. view article

The Boerne Independent School District is one of five San Antonio-area school districts going out for a Voter-Approval Tax Rate Election, or VATRE, this November. VATREs give districts access to more funding for daily operations, like salaries and student programs by allowing school districts to raise their Maintenance and Operations (M&O) tax rate by up to 12 cents. view article

The district currently has $3.096 billion in outstanding bond debt.  According to Lamar CISD, the proposed bonds would not change the current tax rate of $1.1469 per $100 of taxable valuation. view article

Most of the cities — Odessa, La Marque, Tom Bean and Whitesboro — said they are following the law and Ken Paxton’s office is jumping the gun on enforcing new state rules. view article

Four cities are in the crosshairs for potentially raising taxes illegally.   - Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is ordering multiple Texas cities to halt their newly adopted property tax increases while his office investigates whether the hikes are illegal under a new state law designed to protect taxpayers.  The first city in Paxton’s sights is Whitesboro, where just this week the city council approved a 61 percent tax rate increase despite warnings that the move could violate state law.   Senate Bill 1851, passed during this year’s legislative session and signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott, prohibits cities that fail to meet annual audit deadlines from adopting a tax rate above the no-new-revenue rate, which generally keeps property tax bills flat. view article

School trustees unanimously voted to place the excess tax rate increase on the November ballot. view article

Austin ISD (AISD) adopted a slightly lower tax rate of $0.9252 per $100 of taxable value for the 2025-26 fiscal year, potentially leading to savings for homeowners despite increased property values. The district's board of trustees approved the rate on September 25th, and while the overall rate is lower, savings will vary by individual homeowners based on their specific property's taxable value.   view article

City council members unanimously approved a tax rate that will raise average homeowners’ property tax bills by 61 percent—an extra $498. view article

COLLEGE STATION (Texas Real Estate Research Center) – Texas’ housing market slowed in February after persistently low mortgage interest rates contributed to record sales in the existing-home sector the previous month. "Sales activity was greatly hindered by February’s unseasonably wintery weather that caused power outages and water disruptions across the state," said Dr. Luis Torres, research economist for the Texas Real Estate Research Center at Texas A&M University. Existing-homes sold through the Texas Multiple Listing Services declined 16 percent from January, drawing even with year-ago levels. Despite slower sales, the state’s existing-home inventory fell below 1.5 months in February. The number of new listings that hit the market declined for the second straight month to their lowest reading since April 2020, when the state was under a stay-at-home mandate. view article

Count on the Texas Legislature to come up with a painfully complicated and inefficient way to repeal a painfully complicated and inefficient tax. Lawmakers deserve praise for targeting the Texas Franchise Tax, but their methods are unsound. The franchise tax, also called the margins or business tax, ranks consistently as one of the worst taxes anywhere in the country. It was the convoluted response to the Texas Supreme Court declaring the public school finance system unconstitutional. Lawmakers had to lower property taxes to comply with the court order, so to find replacement funds they rewrote the franchise tax, what businesses pay for the privilege to operate in our great state. view article

The Dallas school board Thursday night voted against putting a tax ratification election before voters this fall. The proposed 13-cent tax hike would have given the district $100 million to fund early childhood education and early college high school programs. The district also wanted to expand a program that pays extra money to top teachers who take jobs in some of the district’s toughest schools. view article

Trustees of the Wylie Independent School District proposed a tax rate of $1.13 per $100 of property value for the 2016-17 fiscal year — a tax cut of 2.4 cents — and added more money to the proposed budget for teachers' salaries during Monday's regular board meeting. Trustees conducted their third of three workshops for the 2016-17 budget of $32.340 million and set a special meeting for Monday, Aug. 29, at 6:30 p.m. to receive comments from the public on the budget and tax rate and then consider approval. view article

School trustees in Kilgore began their budget-writing season Monday with an overview of what is and isn’t known about financing the 2014-15 school year. view article