HB 2 by Meyer: Property Tax Relief Act

HB 2 is the enabling legislation for HJR 1 and it seeks to lower the appraisal cap from 10% as it applies to homestead property currently to 5% and apply it to all properties, while also providing for the additional compression of the school M&O portion of the property tax. Compression is the best form of property tax relief as it lowers taxes for all property owners equally and is permanent while not being subject to being made null by inflation and other economic factors. TFR recommends that the appraisal cap provisions be removed from HB 2 entirely and that the amount of compression is increased to at least $20 billion, giving us the truly biggest property tax break in Texas history (when you adjust for inflation) as prescribed by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott. Although there is a lot of room for improvement, TFR supports HB 2 while also recommending amendments.