I heard the Lt. Governor of Florida talking about this on the Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show today. There is a movement afoot in Florida to eliminate property taxes on homestead exemptions.

This is a good idea. I hope Texas follows suit.

Google produced this: https://www.mondaq.com/unitedstates/property-taxes/1693876/florida-house-releases-property-tax-reform-proposals

techno-ag said:

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I heard the Lt. Governor of Florida talking about this on the Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show today. There is a movement afoot in Florida to eliminate property taxes on homestead exemptions.

This is a good idea. I hope Texas follows suit.

Google produced this: https://www.mondaq.com/unitedstates/property-taxes/1693876/florida-house-releases-property-tax-reform-proposals

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What does that mean???

Martin Cash said:

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techno-ag said:

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I heard the Lt. Governor of Florida talking about this on the Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show today. There is a movement afoot in Florida to eliminate property taxes on homestead exemptions.

This is a good idea. I hope Texas follows suit.

Google produced this: https://www.mondaq.com/unitedstates/property-taxes/1693876/florida-house-releases-property-tax-reform-proposals

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What does that mean???

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It means if you live in the house and have filed for a homestead exemption you would not pay property taxes. Businesses and investment properties would still have to pay.

I think he means exempting the full value of homesteads from property tax.

But to his previous point, no. Texas politicians don't have the balls for that.

Rossticus said:

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I think he means exempting the full value of homesteads from property tax.

But to his previous point, no. Texas politicians don't have the balls for that.

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Ok, so eliminate taxes on homesteads.

Bad idea.

Martin Cash said:

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Rossticus said:

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I think he means exempting the full value of homesteads from property tax.

But to his previous point, no. Texas politicians don't have the balls for that.

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Ok, so eliminate taxes on homesteads.

Bad idea.

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When is it ever bad to eliminate taxes?

Martin Cash said:

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Rossticus said:

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I think he means exempting the full value of homesteads from property tax.

But to his previous point, no. Texas politicians don't have the balls for that.

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Ok, so eliminate taxes on homesteads.

Bad idea.

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Property taxes are a wealth tax and need to go.

Martin Cash said:

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Rossticus said:

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I think he means exempting the full value of homesteads from property tax.

But to his previous point, no. Texas politicians don't have the balls for that.

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Ok, so eliminate taxes on homesteads.

Bad idea.

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I disagree. If lost revenue is the main concern, replace with a county sales tax i.e. consumption based tax rather than taxing an asset that isn't being sold.

Technically property taxes in Texas are not levied by the state. They are a levied by a variety of local government entities - city, county, school districts, etc..

I'd be good with eliminating property tax on homesteads. As I'm approaching retirement it would be nice to know I can actually own my house.

Ulysses90 said:

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Martin Cash said:

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Rossticus said:

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I think he means exempting the full value of homesteads from property tax.

But to his previous point, no. Texas politicians don't have the balls for that.

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Ok, so eliminate taxes on homesteads.

Bad idea.

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I disagree. If lost revenue is the main concern, replace with a county sales tax i.e. consumption based tax rather than taxing an asset that isn't being sold.

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I agree with you. Property taxes are a perpetual lien on an asset you've already paid for. Awful, awful tax policy.

Bad idea??

Sounds great

I will support any politician who gets behind this. The property taxes on my house are CRAZY!

Just vote for your 40k homestead exemption increase (for school taxes) and be happy...

ExPeterKeating said:

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I will support any politician who gets behind this. The property taxes on my house are CRAZY!

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How much is crazy? Lots of people say this but I've yet to see it reach even a fraction of high income taxes.

So what new tax would replace the reduced property tax refenue?

Property taxes are crushing

The Kraken said:

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So what new tax would replace the reduced property tax refenue?

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how about reduce spending?

Is that going to happen ? What state programs are being cut?

The Kraken said:

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So what new tax would replace the reduced property tax refenue?

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I didn't create this problem, I don't have to have solutions. I'm only proposing we throw this burden off of ourselves and let the taxing authorities figure out how they'll get the money.

The Kraken said:

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So what new tax would replace the reduced property tax refenue?

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Good question. The pitch is to have the burden shifted to investment properties So all of those snowbirds that just own their houses for a winter getaway would see their property taxes rise quite a bit. Ditto for Airbnb and long term rental owners.

I doubt this raises enough, though, so look for some other combination of sales tax increases and state funding to make up the difference.

The Kraken said:

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So what new tax would replace the reduced property tax refenue?

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Sales tax. You could exempt (or have a lower rate) for items that impact poor people disproportionately.

But stop taxing old people who are no longer working and don't have the income to pay a property tax. Having to sell a home that you paid off because you can't afford the property taxes is shameful.

The Kraken said:

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So what new tax would replace the reduced property tax refenue?

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The state of Florida is running a $3.8B budget surplus in FY 2025-26. Why would this removal of a tax need to be replaced? The government doesn't have an entitlement to replace tax revenue when the people who earned it are allowed to retain it.

A is A said:

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The Kraken said:

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So what new tax would replace the reduced property tax refenue?

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how about reduce spending?

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By 50%? Those football ticket sales won't pay to even keep the lights on at school, and property taxes are an enormous chunk of their revenue.

I like FL's solution. I have suggested it on other threads discussing property tax. Those that own a house & live in it get to fully own it. Those that own a property to make money continue to pay tax on that property. Gives the homeowner a cut without requiring a huge increase to another tax.

I'll say this again...
Consumption (sales) tax starts to break down at the county and city level because consumers are too mobile. It's fine in the larger urban counties but it will completely fail in the rural counties and the especially along the rural-urban interface counties.

Local sales tax already passes through the State in order to ease the payment burden on the business. So all sales tax is remitted to the state and the portion that needs to go to the city is cut back to the city by the State Comptroller. So that office would have to grow, thus sending more money through Austin. Or do we propose that business start filing multiple sales tax reports every month?

Property tax exemptions and carveouts only shift the burden. STOP voting for bond increases. The overwhelming tax burden in every county are the schools. Reform education and get those costs under control. All of the paleaceous sports complexes, Chromebooks, smart boards, etc haven't improved test scores.

We all abhor the tax man. However if we're going to have a realistic and honest discussion about it, a civilized society is not free and does bear expense and requires management. Thus the requirement for governance. Those expenses should then be spread equitably amongst the consumers within that jurisdiction. Property within that jurisdiction is the only metric which remains static and does not cross jurisdictional boundaries. Consumption can and does cross local boundaries (it would work at a larger level, especially national). Income quickly becomes disparate with age, while use of programs does not.

That's a long way of saying we can't do any better than the current way of doing things, and I don't accept it. Plenty of good ideas on this thread, and Florida is showing some innovation also. We can do better.

This. Until we solve how we are going to fund schools, nothing will change here. That's the crux of the entire thing.

There is no way we will replace a consistent funding stream (property taxes) with one that is way more variable. Until someone can show Austin how that will work then nothing is changing.

Texas is way different than Florida. Good luck getting our 5-6 huge liberal strongholds (which Florida does not have) and our rural republicans (who didn't want vouchers) on board the same plan that somehow continues a consistent funding stream to public schools.

I mean, seriously, lol good luck with that.

FTR, I would love to cut do away with property taxes but I do so knowing the replacement will be just another flavor of poison.

Does Texas allow local governments to add additional sales taxes?

Here in Florida, the state sales tax is 6%. In Lake County, where I live, we have an additional 1% tacked onto that. Orange County, just to the east of me, does not.

The state even has it where Lake County gets their chunk of change on big purchases in other counties. We bought two cars in 2023; for both of them we went to a dealership in Orange County. Because we are Lake County residents, we still had to pay the extra 1% tax on the purchase of the cars, even though we bought them in Orange County.

I think local governments here are going to have to be creative in how they collect revenue, but I wouldn't be surprised to see the state step in to do some funding redistribution to areas where there's simply not enough economic activity to offset the loss of property tax revenue with a consumption tax.

As an aside, DeSantis is also now co-chairing (with a Democrat from Maryland) a committee to get a constitutional amendment for congressional term limits.

From twklast time this was discussed:

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none of the people claiming that we can easily abolish property taxes and replace them with consumption taxes have even touched on the largest problem with this concept, and that is the sales tax is collected at the point of sale, not the residence of the purchaser. If you live in a district outside an urban center, your sales tax for purchasing cars, appliances, and basically anything of value goes to a jurisdiction other than the one where you live. Even if you live in a urban area, retail activity tends to be higher in some suburbs than others.

If we went with a consumption tax, we'd have to have the state collect the tax, and parcel the money out based on population rather than where the sales occur, or else we would be replacing a system which pretty effectively spreads tax out over the entire state with one which concentrates it in a few jurisdictions.

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How can we implement this change in Texas without shifting the power of the purse from counties to Austin?

Another issue with consumption tax. I think everyone that wants property taxes killed just assumes there is a magic bullet we can easily deploy as a replacement that somehow absolves us from having to pay that money every year.

There is not. It has to come from somewhere and will.

ABattJudd said:

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Does Texas allow local governments to add additional sales taxes?

Here in Florida, the state sales tax is 6%. In Lake County, where I live, we have an additional 1% tacked onto that. Orange County, just to the east of me, does not.

The state even has it where Lake County gets their chunk of change on big purchases in other counties. We bought two cars in 2023; for both of them we went to a dealership in Orange County. Because we are Lake County residents, we still had to pay the extra 1% tax on the purchase of the cars, even though we bought them in Orange County.

I think local governments here are going to have to be creative in how they collect revenue, but I wouldn't be surprised to see the state step in to do some funding redistribution to areas where there's simply not enough economic activity to offset the loss of property tax revenue with a consumption tax.

As an aside, DeSantis is also now co-chairing (with a Democrat from Maryland) a committee to get a constitutional amendment for congressional term limits.

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Yes. Most Municipalities it's an additional 2.25%.
Again, it's "fine" in major urban areas. It fails when people have to cross county lines for basic consumption needs.

At the very least, Texas should put an end to the annual appraisal/tax assessment scheme.

If residential taxes are paid every year, they should be fixed at the amount that was actually paid for the property for perpetuity.

Seamaster said:

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At the very least, Texas should put an end to the annual appraisal/tax assessment scheme.

If residential taxes are paid every year, they should be fixed at the amount that was actually paid for the property for perpetuity.

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But then you have California's problem....

Tradeoffs abound! And the particular tradeoff that is most beneficial to people completely depends on where they are in life.

Edit: selfishly, I want to kill property taxes because our housing costs (taxes / insurance / mx) are now our highest annual expense (by miles) and we don't even have a mortgage.