Texas home­own­ers are deal­ing with “stick­er shock” as ris­ing appraised home val­ues come with a cor­re­spond­ing rise in prop­er­ty tax­es, accord­ing to an arti­cle by Joshua Fechter for the Texas Tri­bune.

“The growth rate of home val­ues in the state’s major met­ro­pol­i­tan areas has surged by dou­ble dig­its. In Har­ris Coun­ty, the state’s most pop­u­lous coun­ty, res­i­den­tial val­ues have risen between 15% and 30%, accord­ing to Roland Altinger, the county’s chief apprais­er,” writes Fechter.

The medi­an home val­ue in Bexar Coun­ty is up 25 per­cent. The medi­an home val­ue in Travis Coun­ty is up 50 per­cent.

Texas Gov­er­nor Greg Abbott has made calls for prop­er­ty tax reduc­tions a talk­ing point on the cam­paign trail as he seeks re-elec­tion next year. His oppo­nent, Beto O’Rourke, has blamed Gov. Abbot for the increas­ing cost of liv­ing in the state, which includes the increas­ing prop­er­ty tax rates.

Texas depends on prop­er­ty tax­es more than any almost every oth­er state in the country—only New Hamp­shire, New Jer­sey, and Alas­ka rely more on prop­er­ty tax­es to gen­er­ate rev­enue for gov­ern­ments, accord­ing to a 2021 report by the Tax Foun­da­tion (the Lin­coln Insti­tute of Land Pol­i­cy also offers an inter­ac­tive state-by-state com­par­i­son tool for explor­ing prop­er­ty tax­es.

The arti­cle includes a sec­tion devot­ed to the pro­posed pol­i­cy reforms meant to address ris­ing prop­er­ty tax­es in Texas. Among poli­cies imple­ment­ed are a home­stead exemp­tion of $25,000 and a prop­er­ty tax cap of 10 per­cent in a giv­en year. Gov. Abbott is propos­ing a “tax­pay­er bill of rights” that would “fur­ther reduce school prop­er­ty tax rates, make prop­er­ty appraisals more trans­par­ent and lim­it local gov­ern­ments from tak­ing on new debt with­out vot­er approval,” accord­ing to Fechter.

O’Rourke, on the oth­er hand, is propos­ing a tax reform pack­age that includes “mak­ing sure that the state picks up 50% of the tab for pub­lic schools, expand­ing Med­ic­aid to ease the prop­er­ty tax bill for pub­licly fund­ed hos­pi­tals, plus legal­iz­ing mar­i­jua­na and tax­ing its sale,” accord­ing to Fechter. “He also float­ed the idea of legal­iz­ing casi­no gam­bling and sports bet­ting as a way of gen­er­at­ing more tax rev­enue.”

A lot more detail and dis­cus­sion can be found at the source arti­cle below.