Interim Senate Committee On Property Taxes Holds First Meeting

This article originally published by Texas Association of Counties.

The newly minted Senate Select Committee on Property Tax Reform and Relief met on Dec. 7, 2015, for an organizational hearing. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick created the committee to address property tax issues such as tax rate-setting by cities and counties, property tax appeals processes and property appraisal policies.

The committee will seek to make recommendations to the lieutenant governor to be used as the foundation for legislation during the 85th legislative session. During the hearing, chairman of the committee Sen. Paul Bettencourt committed to holding hearings across the state, to get broad input on the committee’s eventual recommendations.

In line with this effort to seek statewide input, the lieutenant governor appointed a geographically diverse set of senators to serve on the committee. The membership is as follows:

• Sen. Paul Bettencourt (R-Houston) – Chair
• Sen. Brandon Creighton (R-Conroe)
• Sen. Kelly Hancock (R-North Richland Hills)
• Sen. Eduardo A. “Eddie” Lucio, Jr. (D-Brownsville)
• Sen. Charles Perry (R-Lubbock)
• Sen. Van Taylor (R-Plano)
• Sen. Carlos Uresti (D-San Antonio)

Among other recommendations the committee will likely recommend a lower revenue cap, restricting the current 8 percent rollback rate to a 6 or 4 percent rate for example. It is also expected that the committee will recommend that any tax rate set by cities and counties that is above the rollback rate trigger an automatic rollback election.