January 10, 2024
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 | Yasmeen Khalifa, Audience Engagement Producer |
Best of the Bayou
Today we're talking about property tax relief...
If you read one thing: Texans are set to receive $18 billion in property tax relief over the next two years, and none of it — at least directly — is earmarked for renters.
How many people does this affect?
Across the state, renters occupy about three out of every eight households, including more than half of those in Texas' largest cities, according to Census Bureau estimates. They pay property taxes indirectly to their landlords, who pass on the costs as a portion of the rent they charge.
But some lawmakers and policy experts say there is no guarantee that property owners will, in a similar fashion, pass along the savings from Texas' multibillion-dollar property tax-cut package, even as the cuts are funded by taxes that everyone pays.
"We're talking about a huge part of our population," said state Rep. John Bryant, D-Dallas. "Everybody pays property taxes, but not everybody is getting a property tax cut. Only the owners of the property are getting it, and no reasonable person suggests that they're going to pass [it] along to the renters."
What's in the tax-cut package?
The tax-cut package, passed by the Legislature this summer and resoundingly approved by voters last month, drives down local school district tax rates and more than doubles Texas' homestead exemption, allowing homeowners to pay school property taxes as if their residence was worth $100,000 less than its true appraised value.
Lawmakers paid for the cuts by dipping into the state's more than $30 billion surplus of leftover cash — mostly a product of taxes on sales and oil and gas. Republicans argue landlords will be compelled to pass on cost savings to remain competitive with the rest of the market, particularly in renter's markets when landlords are struggling to lease out their properties.
So will renters see relief?
The question of whether renters will see any property tax relief depends on the "dynamics in each local housing market," said Lynn Krebs, an economist at the Texas Real Estate Research Center at Texas A&M University.
In places with lots of vacant rentals, where landlords would need to offer lower rent or other incentives to attract tenants, "then it seems perfectly logical that the lower property tax burden will give them the ability to do that, and they would do that" to prevent the property from going uninhabited, Krebs said.
But that's not always the case. And without those market pressures, Krebs said, there's nothing to force the savings onto renters as long as the market "is demanding housing at higher or current rates."
- Read Jasper Scherer's full story here.
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I don't know about you guys, but I needed some good news this week. And I sure got it when I saw that the Girl Scouts are kicking off their 2024 cookie season. I'm buying all the Thin Mints and Samoas I can get my hands on.
Puzzle of the Day: SpellTower
Find and clear words by selecting tiles in the grid. Words must be made up of contiguous tiles. You can use diagonals and cross your own path.
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