Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, House Speaker Dade Phelan meet to discuss property tax relief
AUSTIN (CBSNewsTexas.com) — For the first time in over a month, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick and House Speaker Dade Phelan met to discuss how best to provide relief to Texas home and business owners.
The lieutenant governor and house speaker didn't issue any statements about their Wednesday afternoon meeting. But Phelan told reporters from "Texas Capitol Tonight" and NPR that they "talked about a lot of issues, but mainly tax reform and tax relief for needy Texans."
Asked if a deal would happen soon, Phelan told the reporters, "There's plenty of time."
In a statement following the meeting, Governor Greg Abbott's Communications Director Renae Eze told CBS News Texas, "Governor Abbott and his office remain in regular communication with the speaker and lieutenant governor on delivering lasting property tax cuts for Texans, including conversations yesterday on Independence Day. With potential signs of progress in the discussions between the two chambers, we are hopeful the House and Senate will send a property tax cut bill to the governor's desk soon."
House members referred six bills to the House Committee on Ways and Means for consideration, including one measure by Representative Terry Wilson (R-Georgetown) that would do away with the school maintenance and operations (M&O) portion of the property tax after 2038.
Gov. Abbott has said he wants lawmakers to pass a bill that would place the state on a path to eliminate the M&O school property tax.
A committee approved House Bill 1 last week, backed by Gov. Abbott, to cut school property tax rates and instead, use more state sales tax and other state revenues to pay for public schools.
It's a process called compression.
The Senate gaveled in and out quickly Wednesday after approving a different bill to cut property taxes last week that includes compression and raising the homestead exemption to $100,000 for most homeowners. The Senate legislation would also give teachers bonuses.
The Texas Politics Project at UT Austin released a poll last month that included a question about the ongoing property tax impasse.
It shows most people surveyed, 42% think their property taxes will actually go up, 23% expect property taxes to drop, 21% expect property taxes to stay the same, and 14% had no opinion.
Texas Politics Project research director Dr. Joshua Blank told CBS News Texas, "What it does reflect is the fact that polling that we've looked at for the last number of years indicates not only again negative evaluations of how the legislature is handling property taxes, but also this expectation that either the things they're doing or not going to do make [a] heavy, real impact on people and that their property taxes are likely to go up."
