AUSTIN, Texas —  The long standoff between the Texas House and the Texas Senate over dueling property tax relief plans appears to have ended.

Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who leads the Senate, and House Speaker Dade Phelan, both Republicans, on Monday morning announced a “breakthrough deal” on proposed legislation. 

Touted in a news release as bills that will “deliver the biggest property tax cut in Texas history,” the legislation is said to include the following:

• Over $12 billion will be spent on reducing the school property tax rate for all homeowners and business properties.
• Every homeowner who homesteads their home (approximately 5.7 million homeowners) will get a $100,000 homestead exemption.
• Non-homesteaded properties, valued at $5 million and under, including residential and commercial properties, will receive a 20% circuit breaker on appraised values as a three-year pilot project.
• Legislation will also include savings on the franchise tax for small businesses and create newly elected positions on local appraisal boards.

 The tax cut is said to total $18 billion.

"Reducing property taxes, providing relief to small business owners, and reforming our appraisal system will ensure economic growth and prosperity, and this agreement is a significant victory for all Texans,” Phelan wrote.

In an interview with Capital Tonight’s Karina Kling, Lt. Gov. Patrick said “it’s a great day for taxpayers.”

“I’m very pleased,” Patrick said. “We wanted a $100,000 homestead exemption for all 5.7 million homeowners who homestead their property. That will give them about a 41% cut in their school taxes beginning this year once they approve it in November. It means about a $1250 to $1450 tax savings every year to them with that homestead exemption, and that will be permanent for the life of their home as long as they homestead it.”

Patrick and Phelan tussled over the best way to cut property taxes during the regular and first special sessions. Taxpayers were left wondering when they’d get the money Gov. Abbott promised them during his campaign. 

“There’s a negative effect overall in the sense that this was something that the leadership should have resolved during the regular session, and it shouldn't have taken two special sessions to get here,” said Mark Jones, a political science professor at Rice University. “But I think the attitude now among Republicans in the general population is, all is well and good now that it's been actually accomplished.”

Patrick says even though the lawmakers went into overtime twice, they ended up with a better bill.

“The Speaker and I came together, and that’s part of politics,” he said. “It’s part of the process. There are 150 House members. They had their own ideas. There are 31 senators; had their own ideas. And it’s a big project, the biggest in history… We all had some good laughs on some things from the House and from the Senate, so at the end of the day, we came together. The Speaker and I worked very well together this last week.” 

Two weeks ago, Sen. Roland Gutierrez successfully added an amendment to the Senate’s property tax relief bill to give teachers a bonus. That’s not included in the new agreed upon plan, but the Legislature is set to meet again later this year to pass education-related bills.

The chambers are expected to pass the package later this week, and the governor says he’ll sign the bill when it reaches his desk.

You can watch the entire interview on Capital Tonight above.