On Tuesday, the Texas Senate gave their approval to Senate Bill 2, the Property Tax Reform and Relief Act of 2017, on a vote of 18-12. Passage of the bill means that strong taxpayer protections, like an automatic election trigger and a reduced rollback tax rate, are one step closer to becoming reality, much to the benefit of struggling homeowners and businesses.
And while opponents of property tax reform continue to argue that SB 2 and its sister bill in the House (HB 15) pose a threat to public safety, that argument has been batted down repeatedly by the Foundation’s James Quintero (see Quintero: Facts Contradict Claims on Texas Property Tax Reform and Arts programs show cities have enough fat to waste).
The fact is that local budgets have been growing fast for a long time (see pg. 116 here), and some commonsense reforms are needed to restore sanity back to the system. And hopefully soon, that will happen.