Gov. Greg Abbott shared that he is considering using a large amount of the state budget surplus toward tax cuts as property tax rates continue to rise across the state.
With property tax rates on the rise across the United States, Texas residents continue to feel the effects with some of the highest rates in the country. Numbers reported from The Balance collected last year found that Texas ranked 10th in the country for states with the highest property tax rates, with a median payment of $4,065 per year.
"On property taxes, @GregAbbott_TX tells @sergiotalk on @710KURV he supports taking 'a large chunk of the surplus money we have available .. as in > $5 billion' and applying that toward > tax cuts," said Bob Garrett, Austin bureau chief for The Dallas Morning News in a tweet last week. "Also wants to exempt $100,000 of a small biz's equipment from personal property tax."
Additional numbers reported from the Tax Foundation in 2021 found that Texas had the sixth-highest property tax rate when measured as property taxes paid as a percentage of owner-occupied housing value in 2019 at 1.60%. Property taxes recorded from 2016 to 2020 in Texas were found to have increased faster than intended in the state's 10 most populous counties and cities, according to the Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF).
"Property taxes imposed by Texas’ largest city governments rose sharply over the past five years," the TPPF report states. "From 2016 to 2020, the top 10 most populous cities collected significantly more property tax revenue, with at least two reaping over a 50% increase."
On a more specific level, a survey conducted separately by the TPPF found that 71% out of the 608 Hispanics in the Lone Star State surveyed described their local property taxes as a “major burden.”