AUSTIN, Texas — The new year is bringing with it new laws. For the first time in Texas history, a new bill is giving property tax breaks to those who are disabled or over the age of 65.
CBS Austin is told the new law will help people stay in their homes. The biggest question though is how will schools be able to recoup the expected loss in revenue. To find that answer, we went to the experts.
Texas State Sen. Paul Bettencourt (R-Houston) believes it’s important for all homeowners to have property tax relief.
"The great news is that those over 65, will actually start seeing their tax bills go down, not just stay the same every year," said Senator Bettencourt.
Senate Bill 12, which Bettencourt authored is doing just that by limiting the amount of property taxes school districts can impose on those who are 65 and older or disabled.
“ So basically, what Senate Bill 12 did is that it unfreezes the frozen value and then lowers it every year, that we have what's called compression in school tax rates or school tax rates come down year after year. So the over 65 will get the benefit of compression,” said Bettencourt.
The bill passed both in the House and Senate during the 2021 legislative session. Education attorney Catherine Michael says the bill was created to overcome shortcomings in a previous 2019 bill that allowed “some” caps on property taxes but excluded the elderly and disabled from exemptions.
“The change is not going to be dramatic for school districts. If they have a shortcoming due to some changes in their communities due to fewer property taxes coming in, they can actually still apply to the state for some of that excess funding,” said Michael.
Education Austin President Ken Zarifis says he would like to the state to start exploring other revenues to invest in public education.
“You have to change the funding formula, changing taxes and cutting taxes doesn’t change the funding formula that has to happen to improve our schools. This state has billions of dollars in savings and some of that is largely due because of Austin's recapture, and we should be able to access those dollars to help our kids. The more they cut taxes, and they think they're being heroes, and they are for very few people. They're hurting our children," said Zarifis.
Michael feels the move is a good thing.
"Frankly, by keeping people in their homes, whether we're talking about the elderly or the disabled, that really keeps people in the community, which will keep up the property values altogether and allow more property taxes to come in,” said Michael.
Bettencourt says 87% of the public approves of this law—which went into effect at the start of 2023. If you would like to read more about the findings that went into this bill, click here.