Texas Homeowners 'Devastated' Despite Greg Abbott's Property Tax Move

Greg Abbott's $18 billion tax cut package for Texas property owners came into force on Monday, but many residents complained to Newsweek that they are still facing impossibly high taxes on their homes.

Despite having no personal income tax—a perk that has attracted many to move to the Lone Star State—Texas has some of the country's highest property taxes. Abbott campaigned for re-election in 2022 with the goal to ease this financial pressure on the state's residents, and last year he put to voters a decision over his property tax cut package.

Texans overwhelmingly voted in support of the historic measure, which increased the amount of a home's value that cannot be taxed to pay for public schools from $40,000 to $100,000. Republican Senator Paul Bettencourt of Houston said the bill would help Texas residents to save on average $1,300 a year in property taxes.

Some Texans told Newsweek they were pleased by the measure. But many others wrote to complain that they're not eligible for the homestead exemption or that they're still paying burdensome property taxes despite benefiting from the raise in the exemption. The blame was not laid entirely at Abbott's door, with the appraisal system coming in for particular criticism.

LuAnn Savage, a 69-year-old Midlothian resident, told Newsweek that her family's home includes 55 acres of land which they cannot add to the homestead. "This 55 acre is assessed higher than the other 3 acres and the house," she said.

"When we bought the property that 55 acres almost kept us from buying because the appraiser said the electrical pylon sitting on it lowers the whole property value," she added. "At that time, in 2017, that little strip was assessed at $8,500; it is now $90,000 and the new tax code allows the appraisal district to raise it 20 percent a year!"

Savage pays $1,828.56 in taxes for the land in front of her home, while the tax burden for the house and 3 acres she owns is $2,306.83. "At this rate, next year the 55 acre with the electrical pylon on it will be taxed at a higher rate than my homestead," she said.

However, Savage doesn't blame the Republican governor for it, but the appraisal system in the state. "The Central Appraisal Districts need to be abolished and ELECTED people run them not these bureaucrats!" she said.

Tracy Williams told Newsweek that taxes on the 5-acre home they had bought in 1996 for $16,000 just went up as their home was appraised for $350,000. "My property taxes are unbelievable," Williams said. "I'm devastated."

Frank Porco, a Comanche resident, will benefit from the newly increased homestead exemption on his home but he's being crushed by the high property taxes he'll have to pay on the property his parents left him after their passing.

"Mom and dad owned their home and it was homesteaded, the tax was about $4,000," he told Newsweek.

"Since I had to change ownership and I'm only allowed one homestead, last year I paid $6,500. This year it's $7,843. I am 72 and on Social Security so with just the two homes and the lot I own next to them my tax fees are about $12,000."

Porco said that because of the property taxes and car insurance he's paying he's "sinking." He's trying to sell his parents' former home "but the market is really bad right now. No one has even been here to look."

Newsweek contacted Abbott's office for comment over the property tax relief package on Wednesday by email, but did not receive a response.

Despite several issues reported by Texas residents, others are indeed delighted with Abbott's new tax cut package.

"I was pleasantly surprised and checked and double-checked when I received the last of the three tax bills I got on my property," 84-year-old Helen Bateman told Newsweek, calling the decrease in property taxes a "godsend."

"This was the school tax which was over $1,700 in 2022 and over $400 in 2023, over $1,200 less! The other two taxes were less than last year but not by much," she said. "Overall I am pleased and thank you, Governor Abbott."

"Homeowners should quit blaming the Governor who did an admirable thing along with the Texas legislature," Roy Washam told Newsweek. "The blame should go to the county tax appraisers who raised the valuations way above the true fair market values."

Another reader, Katy resident Jose Zayas, told Newsweek that the property tax rate in his area is 3.55 percent and that his house was valued $336,000 last year compared with $288,000 the year before, "rising $48k in only one year despite the fact that I bought this house in December 2021 for $284,000." Zayas's income is less than $50,000.