House Proposals Target New Rate Compression and Tax Relief for Texas Businesses

AUSTIN, Texas — Speaker of the Texas House Dustin Burrows today announced his support of priority legislation to provide new property tax relief to Texas home and business owners. House Bill 8 and House Bill 9, by Ways and Means Committee Chairman Morgan Meyer, lower Texans’ property tax rates through across-the-board rate compression and increase the personal property tax exemption for small businesses from $2,500 to $250,000, making it the nation’s second-largest exemption of its kind. “This session, the Texas House is taking action to reduce Texans’ property tax burden and keep our state the best in the nation for starting and growing a business,” said Speaker Burrows. “Raising the personal property tax exemption by nearly 10,000% would be a monumental win for Texas businesses, freeing up funds for business owners to reinvest in the growth of their companies on top of the potential savings provided by buying down property tax rates for all property owners statewide. I appreciate Chairman Meyer for filing these proposals—the House looks forward to working with our colleagues in the Senate to deliver the relief Texans deserve this session.”

Key Highlights of the Texas House’s Property Tax Relief Package:

House Budget: Uses existing statutory mechanisms to fund an additional 6.8 cents of compression and funds new property tax relief in the following House bills.

HB 8 (Meyer) – Rate Compression

• Provides an additional 3.31 cents of new, across-the-board rate compression
• Increases total compression to 10.11 cents by the end of the biennium when combined with the 6.8 cents in the House budget
• Delivers immediate property tax relief for this year of the biennium

HB 9 and HJR 1 (Meyer) – Personal Property Tax Exemption for Businesses

• Dedicates $700 million to raising the personal property tax exemption for businesses from the current $2,500 to $250,000—an increase of 9,900%, which would be the second-largest personal-property exemption in the nation
• HB 9 is contingent upon the passage of House Joint Resolution 1 (Meyer), which proposes the constitutional amendment required to authorize the increased exemption. If approved by the Legislature, HJR 1 will be placed on the November ballot for voters’ consideration.