(Texas Scorecard) – Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has announced he is working on a deal with House Speaker Dustin Burrows to give senior citizens significant property tax relief.
The announcement was made on Thursday during a press conference reviewing senators’ progress this session, where he also gave updates on energy policy, the investigation of the Texas Lottery, and impeachment reform.
The Senate budget proposal, Senate Bill 1, already includes contingent funding for a significant raise in the homestead exemption—the amount a homeowner can deduct from the value of his or her house before it is taxed.
Senators passed Senate Bill 4 in February, creating the framework. The measure increases the homestead exemption from $100,000 for adults and $110,000 for seniors to $140,000 for adults and $150,000 for seniors.
However, Patrick said on Thursday that he is working on a deal to raise the exemption for seniors even further to $200,000 as budget negotiations with Burrows continue.
“That will remove almost every senior in the State of Texas … from paying any M&O [maintenance and operations] taxes anymore,” said Patrick.
In Texas, M&O taxes are a portion of property taxes that fund the day-to-day operations of local government, including salaries, utilities, and other expenses.
The lieutenant governor also said he expects to see measures allowing teacher prayer in schools, placing the Ten Commandments back in classrooms, and establishing school choice to be passed in the House this session.
Patrick highlighted that senators have passed more than 200 measures thus far, including 29 of his 40 priorities. He contrasted this with the 10 measures that representatives have currently passed in the House.
While the lieutenant governor said he believes Burrows (R-Lubbock) is “committed to what he’s promised, and that includes passing school choice and a litany of conservative bills,” he stressed that “now’s the time to get into action.”
“We will continue to work as we always do, and by next week, or maybe a few days after that—but before tax day on April 15—we will have all of our priority bills over to the House by then, or at least 99 percent,” said Patrick.
In addition to the progress report in the Senate, Patrick announced that a deal had been reached with CenterPoint to give customers over $900 million for “bad business decisions” made by the embattled energy provider.
Patrick previously sent a letter to the Public Utility Commission urging them to claw back the money from CenterPoint that was mismanaged before Hurricane Beryl, leading to a lack of preparation and extended power outages.
The amount CenterPoint agreed to is roughly $100 million more than Patrick initially sought.
Providing an update on the Texas Lottery investigations, Patrick said that the two Texas Rangers investigations being conducted by him and the governor were progressing.
“I believe at the end of the day, we’ll find out that the Lottery has been used as the biggest money laundering scheme in the country,” said Patrick.
“So this is going to be a bigger, I think, investigation than you can imagine, where it’s going to lead, and we’re going to look at who is responsible for all the stuff,” he added.
Patrick, while taking questions at the end of the press conference, expressed sympathy for a proposed constitutional amendment reforming the impeachment process that was being considered by senators in the State Affairs Committee.
Senate Joint Resolution 68 by State Sen. Brian Birdwell (R-Granbury) would amend the Texas Constitution so impeached officers would not have their pay suspended unless removed by senators.
The issue became particularly relevant during the impeachment trial of Attorney General Ken Paxton. Paxton’s pay was temporarily suspended, amounting to a loss of around $50,000 before he was acquitted by the Senate.