DALLAS — During this year’s legislative session, Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price was among scores of city leaders who actively opposed yet another series of attempts by state officials to limit how much money local governments collect. But with lawmakers determined to reform the local property tax process, she and other mayors had little luck […]Read More
Texas’ top three political leaders — Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and House Speaker Dennis Bonnen — threw their support Wednesday behind a proposal to increase the sales tax by one percentage point in order to lower property taxes across the state. But that’s only if lawmakers agree to limit future local property tax increases. The proposal would […]Read More
In the rush of legislation filed before last week’s deadline, you wouldn’t be the only person who missed the measure proposing a 6.26 percent state sales tax rate. No reason you should have seen it or made note of it. For one thing, it’s a teensy tax increase, at least on paper — at least […]Read More
Last week, amid a flurry of votes on more than a dozen other issues, the Texas Senate passed its main measure addressing Gov. Greg Abbott‘s call to reform the laws related to property taxes. On Wednesday, members of the House took a far more expansive approach, considering proposals ranging from the narrow (carving out a new […]Read More
The Senate voted 18-12 in favor of bill that would require an election if a local government entity like a city or county wanted to increase some of its tax collections by 5 percent. The Texas Senate on Tuesday approved a controversial bill that seeks to curb the growth in property taxes that local government agencies […]Read More
Cutting prices can be expensive. The Texas Department of Transportation offered upthe most recent example of that, answering the Legislature’s question about what it would take to make the state’s toll roads free. Turns out it would be pretty damned pricey. The state borrowed $21.1 billion to build those roads (some construction is still underway) […]Read More
Property tax revenue has climbed 46.1 percent over the last 10 years in Texas, and the share attributable to school taxes has dropped over that period, according to the state’s top tax collector. The fastest-rising component? Special-purpose districts for hospitals and such. Even with that, schools account for more than half of all property taxes, […]Read More
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