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The Blast: Patrick won’t back down [1]

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Date: 2023-03 

PATRICK WON’T COMPROMISE ON PROPERTY TAXES

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick told The Dallas Morning News he will not compromise with the Texas House on priority property tax legislation.



“I can’t compromise on something I know is not the right policy,” Patrick told the newspaper. “There are other things we can work with the House on, but this is one I would say is not one of those things because the math is the math.”



The Senate and House have different property tax legislation. Under the Senate’s proposal, which was approved last week, the state would let Texans vote on raising the homestead exemption from $40,000 to $70,000. Homeowners over the age of 65 would get an additional $20,000 on their homestead exemption.



The House proposal mirrors the Senate’s proposal in budgeting at least $5.3 billion to fund public schools in the state. But it does not contain a provision to increase the homestead exemption.



Instead, it works to lower the cap on how much a school district can increase taxes on the value of a home. The proposal would lower the state’s “appraisal cap” from 10% to 5%. It has drawn opposition from Patrick and Sen. Paul Bettencourt, a Houston Republican who has authored his chamber’s property tax legislation, as well as business groups.



Rep. Morgan Meyer, R-University Park, who is the lead author of the House’s proposal, said his constituents are pushing him to tackle the appraisal cap. He said his legislation is the better approach and that he wants to continue to seek compromise.



“This is a process,” he told The News. “ We are still going to talk about homestead exemptions. We’ll still talk about different assets, facets of the plans, because this is our job and our commitment to our constituents is to get something done.”



— James Barragán



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