TEXAS SIT-REP
VITAL ISSUES
FOR THE FUTURE OF TEXAS
Colonel Terry Wilson (USA-Retired) Representative TX-20
Story and photos contributed by Rep. Terry Wilson R-TX20
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It is an honor to serve you as Texas State Representative for the 88th Texas Legislature. The regular and special sessions delivered on vital issues for the future of Texas. The 2024-25 Texas budget will invest $50.4B in public education, $42.9B for public health, $9.3B in infrastructure investments, $5.1B for border security, and $5B in property tax relief from legislation passed in the 2019 legislative session.
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was honored to serve as Chairman of the House Committee on Defense & Veterans’ Affairs. The committee oversaw legislation to support veterans’ mental health, help military and veteran families obtain and transfer occupational licenses, and improve the position of Texas’s military bases for future Department of Defense base realignment, benefiting the Texas economy, military families, and their surrounding communities, all while supporting our national defense. There is still work to be done, and you play a significant role. To protect the rights and authority of the people of Texas, the Texas Constitution requires that certain types of legislation receive authorization from the voters before becoming law. This year, 14 propositions will appear on the ballot addressing funding water, broadband, higher education infrastructure, and providing $12.7 billion in property taxes back to taxpayers.
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G I V I N G B A C K 2023
When a bill comes up for a vote on the floor of the House, I always have a summary on hand with information on what the bill would do along with the arguments for and against it. In this article I wanted to highlight five of the proposed amendments I believe are of particular importance and have my wholehearted support.
Proposition 4 Property Tax Relief Property taxes are the main funding mechanism for local governments in Texas. Every year, the chief appraiser for your county asseses the value of your home or business to find its “market value,” or how much it would be worth on the market if you sold the property. The chief appraiser then checks if there are any limitations on how much their official assessment of a property’s value can increase from one year to the next, regardless of how much the market value may have risen. Once that cap has been applied, the resulting value is known as the “assessed value.” These re-
strictions are typically percentage limitations; e.g., assessed values of homesteaded properties are limited to a 10 percent increase each year. Once the assessed value has been found, the appraisal district applies any deductions or credits, reducing their assessment of the property to the final “taxable Value”. For example, homestead properties currently receive a $40,000 exemption from school districts, causing their “taxable value” to be $40,000 lower than their “assessed value” for the calculation of the taxes owed to their local school district. When your local school district builds its budget, staff use a formula set by the legislature to determine how much funding they should receive based on the number of students attending schools in the district, plus the various needs of those students that make their education more expensive (e.g., CTE courses require expensive equipment used for student training that are not required for standard textbook-only courses).
