AUSTIN, Texas — Mary Selan came to Austin from Plano for a girls’ weekend. She’s in the capital city the same week leaders struck a deal on a property tax relief plan.
“I’m delighted that there’s finally some folks in Austin that are helping us,” she said.
She’s been in Plano for 30 years, and in her home for 10 of those. Selan says she has a fixed income because she’s retired. Although her property tax rate is frozen because she’s over 65, she says the $4,500 bill she got last time stung.
“It’s always something you don’t look forward to, and you wonder where you’ve got to get the funds to pay for it,” she said. “And you take it out of an account you don’t really want to touch.”
Selan says it would be nice to have some sort of discount for people who don’t have children in school anymore, since lots of property tax funds go toward paying public schools’ maintenance and operations costs.
“But sure, these taxes are used in the right way,” she said. “Of course you want better schools. Who wouldn’t?”
According to Texas leaders, Selan can expect to keep nearly $3,000 in the bank over the next two years because of this relief package.
“For the approximately 6 million homeowners in Texas who vote at a disproportionate rate compared to non homeowners, this is a big deal,” said Mark Jones, a political science professor at Rice University. “They’re going to see their homestead exemption go from $40,000 to $100,000. And they’re going to be paying about 11 cents less per $100 of appraised value for the next two years on their property.”
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who leads the Senate, pushed especially hard to raise the homestead exemption. He’s excited about the final plan that he and House Speaker Dade Phelan agree on. The bill passed and Gov. Greg Abbott is expected to sign it soon.
“For the average family that lives in a home for 25 years, that’s a $25,000 plus savings to them over that time,” he said on Capital Tonight Monday. “That helps to pay for college, a great vacation for retirement, for whatever they want to do with the money.”
And with her savings, Selan says she could make another trip down I-35 with her friends.
“I always tried to put half away and half spend, so there may be a vacation in my future,” she said with a laugh.