$15 Billion of Sen. Bettencourt’s Property Tax Relief Bills Advance Out of Senate Finance Committee


SB 3 & 4 provide unprecedented relief to homeowners & all taxpayers, and move out of committee on 17-0 vote

Texas Insider Report: AUSTIN, Texas State Senator Paul Bettencourt (R-Houston) explained the Senate’s three unprecedented $16.5 billion Property Tax Cut Bills in the Senate Finance Committee hearing on Wednesday morning, and after hours of testimony SB 3 & SB 4 worth $15 billion in property tax relief were each passed out of the Senate Committee on Finance, Chaired by Senator Joan Huffman, (above with Sen. Bettencourt, R-Houston) on a 17-0 bipartisan vote.

Senate Bill 5 by Sen. Tan Parker (right) – the $1.5 billion Business Tax Relief Bill – will be considered on Monday along with each of the bills associated Constitutional Amendments SJR 3, 4, & 5.
 
“I want to thank the regular citizens of Texas that took the time out of their schedules to come and support $15 billion of property tax relief, and also thank all the members of the Senate Finance Committee for listening to them and voting out SB 3 and SB 4,” said Bettencourt.

Many groups came to the Capitol to testify on the Senate’s Tax Plan.

For example, Christy Gessler, Secretary & Treasurer for the Texas Realtors’ testified in favor of SB 3 & SB 4 saying,
 
“We believe in Homes for life… Anything that keeps people in their homes for their entire life is wonderful to us,” Gessler said.

As a small business owner, she was also supportive of SB 5 – as it would save her a day's time not doing paperwork.

“Giving business owners back their time is also important,” said Bettencourt.

SB 3 was signed by all 31 Senators as Joint Authors, and would raise the Homestead Exemption 75% to $70,000 for 5.72 million homeowners.
  SB 3 will also implement the voter-approved Homestead Exemption increase from $25,000 to $40,000 for all over-65 and disabled homesteads from Propositions 1 and 2 in May of 2022. In addition, SB 3 now triples the over-65 and disabled Homestead Exemption from $10,000 to $30,000 and that saves them $1,000 per-year, for as long as they own the home.

“I was honored by longtime tax attorney and business owner Jim Popp and his comments today about the Lincoln Institutes 5 points of a good property tax plan. He read through all 5 points and said, ‘BOOM!’ on each point – plus said it was the best tax plan he’s EVER seen!” concluded Bettencourt.

SB 4 will provide an additional $5.38 billion in ISD Tax Rate "compression," and will reduce recapture by expanding the school finance band to 20%. Rate compression benefits all taxpayers and reduces recapture by funding additional Maximum Compressed Rate (MCR) compression in the state's Finance Formulas.

“This is a little bit of history today. This is the first time I’ve shown up to a hearing with so many bills on the agenda, and we’re registered in support of every single one… I’m testifying in support of all the bills as a package,” said Texas Taxpayers & Research Association's (TTARA) President, Dale Craymer (right.)

“It provides balanced relief for all taxpayers - rate compression obviously benefits all taxpayers,” Craymer said.

SB 3 and SB 4 head to the full Senate next. The Constitutional Amendments SJR 3, SJR 4 and SJR 5 for the November 2023 Election, and SB 5 will be heard Monday, March 20th.





















 
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