Cedar Park Leander Edition | April 2022

INSIDE INFORMATION

2 0 2 2 L O C A L V O T E R G U I D E

PROPERTYTAX PROPOSITIONS

P R O P O S I T I O N 1

P R O P O S I T I O N 2

S EN AT E J O I N T R E S O LU T I O N 2 Second special session of 87th Texas Legislature

S EN AT E J O I N T R E S O LU T I O N 2 Third special session of 87th Texas Legislature

House vote:

Senate vote:

Sent to secretary of state’s o§ce Aug. 30

House vote:

Senate vote:

Sent to secretary of state’s o§ce Oct. 19

1160 290

1470 310

COMPILED BY MATT STEPHENS

Texas voters will decide local elections in numerous communities across the state

B A L L O T T E X T

“The constitutional amendment authorizing the Legislature to provide for the reduction of the amount of a limitation on the total amount of ad valorem taxes that may be imposed for general elementary and secondary public school purposes on the residence homestead of a person who is elderly or disabled to reect any statutory reduction from the preceding tax year in the maximum compressed rate of the maintenance and operations taxes imposed for those purposes on the homestead.” Although property taxes are already frozen for the disabled and those 65 and older, this would allow the Legislature to provide additional tax relief from school districts for even those elderly and disabled homeowners with frozen taxes. W H A T D O E S I T M E A N ?

“The constitutional amendment increasing the amount of the residence homestead exemption from ad valorem taxation for public school purposes from $25,000 to $40,000.”

May 7, but they will also vote on two propositions that will have implications on property taxes statewide. Community Impact Newspaper spoke with Joshua Blank, research director of the Texas Politics Project for The University of Texas; Dale Craymer, president of the Texas Taxpayers and Research Association; and Dick Lavine, senior scal analyst for the Every Texan, regarding what the two propositions mean for voters. Blank said both constitutional amendments received bipartisan support from legislators in 2021, and he believes they are likely to pass to provide homeowners property tax relief, but they would place more of the public education funding burden on the state. “You are shifting the burden from … the homeowner automatically handing over some of our property tax into the public education system ... to rely on the Legislature to continue to fund public education at equal or higher levels than they have in the past,” he said.

W H A T D O E S I T M E A N ?

Blank said every homeowner in Texas is already o¥ered a $25,000 homestead exemption on property taxes from public school districts— meaning the rst $25,000 of a home’s appraised property value does not count against a homeowner’s annual property taxes. If approved, that exemption for homeowners would be raised to $40,000.

$600M Estimated annual cost to the state

Estimated cost to the state through 2026

Annual savings for the average homeowner

$744M

$167

SOURCES: TEXAS LEGISLATURE ONLINE, TEXAS SECRETARY OF STATE’S OFFICE WEBSITE, JOSHUA BLANK, DALE CRAYMER, DICK LAVINECOMMUNITY IMPACT NEWSPAPER

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CEDAR PARK LEANDER EDITION • APRIL 2022