Ellen Troxclair thinks there are solutions to Texas tax problems, and she is already working on one of them.
Troxclair, a small business owner and real estate broker who recently won election to the Texas House of Representatives, previously served as the youngest woman to ever serve on the Austin City Council. As a member of the Austin City Council, she advocated to implement the city's first homestead exemption providing tax relief to Austin homeowners. As an advocate at the Legislature, Troxclair was part of successful 2019 efforts to enact incremental property tax reform at the state level, according to her website.
As she prepares to take office, she is focused on the issue, Troxclair told Austin Journal.
“Texas families are being crushed by rising property taxes,” she said. “While measures have recently been put in place to curb out-of-control spending by large cities, we need systemic change to the way we fund our schools if we are going to address the largest part of our property tax bills — school taxes.”
After filing House Bill 629 earlier this month, Troxclair announced that she had “hit the ground running” with a proposal that would “cut property taxes in half, while fully funding public schools and reducing our reliance on Robin Hood.”
“Robin Hood” refers to the state’s current method of funding public education by shifting property tax revenues from one district and reallocating them to another in an effort to provide equitable school financing to all Texas school districts. According to the Texas School Coalition, Texas redistributes about $3 billion per year from school districts across the state, representing over 1.2 million students from 158 districts where more than half of students are “economically disadvantaged.”
“This bill will apply 90% of our $27 billion state surplus to ‘buy down’ (or offset) the school portion of our property taxes, which usually makes up at least half of Texas property tax bills — essentially paying for our schools through the state’s existing surplus, rather than through your property taxes,” Troxclair said. “Schools are currently funded through taxes that you pay to the local school district, which are then redistributed throughout the state through a process commonly called Robin Hood. However, because of wildly different property valuations across the state and complicated school funding formulas, the current process is neither efficient or effective. By using our existing excess revenue to fund public schools through the state, we can streamline this process and equitably fund our schools.”
She said it’s really not that hard to understand.
“This bill would generally cut property taxes in half, nearly eliminate Robin Hood payments, keep tax dollars in our local communities, fully fund public schools, and ensure that the taxpayer money currently sitting in state coffers are returned to Texans through significant property tax reduction — without raising any other taxes,” Troxclair said. “It is truly a win/win for both school districts and taxpayers.”
She realizes there will be resistance to her plan.
“Because many interest groups will be tugging at lawmakers’ jackets for a piece of the pie this session, the challenge will be ensuring that this surplus money is dedicated to tax relief, rather than used to fund new government programs,” Troxclair said. “One thing to note is that the $27 billion surplus is on top of our $14 billion rainy-day fund, so this proposal does not impact the state’s ‘savings account.’”
TaxRates.org reports that Texas' median effective residential property tax rate in 2022 is the third-highest in the United States at 1.81%. This figure measures the percent of a home's market value that is collected by taxing authorities, meaning any tax exemptions on the property are factored into the rate. Two states often compared to Texas, California and Florida, have lower effective property tax rates than the Lone Star State at 0.74% and 0.97% respectively.
Gov. Greg Abbott has expressed his support for measures using record state surpluses to deliver property tax relief. Abbott committed during an October gubernatorial debate to “eliminate the school property tax … so that people can genuinely own their own home without being taxed out of it.”
Troxclair said she is not alone among elected officials who want to take action to fix this problem.
“Several legislators have filed similar legislation and we will be working together to pass the most impactful property tax relief possible this session,” she said. “As property taxes continue to rise, more and more families are struggling to keep up. We cannot wait any longer to give them relief or to fix the broken Robin Hood system that is failing too many of our school districts. We have the money now to make this important change.
Troxclair said she has other goals as well. She wants to prove to voters she deserves to serve in Austin.
“Following through on my campaign promises in order to build and maintain trust with my constituents is my top priority,” Troxclair said. “This includes helping to secure the border, supporting our constitutional rights, protecting our children, and preserving the Hill County’s resources and values while being a responsive and effective representative for HD 19.”