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Governor Greg Abbott will host a bill signing ceremony alongside members of the Texas Legislature on Wednesday, June 12th in Austin. The Governor will sign Senate Bill 2 to reform property taxes in Texas.
The bill signing will be held at Wally’s Burger Express — a longtime Austin business which has reportedly been struggling due to skyrocketing property taxes. Just this year, Wally’s property taxes increased 44{2a63e07d84fe12ceff3a79b3b7d16ceb8565bd2470b26c53e2419132d99be4c6}. Had it not been for the passage of Senate Bill 2, Robert Mayfield, the owner of Wally’s Burger Express, says he would have found it increasingly difficult to stay open.
Once signed into law, the property tax rollback rate will be lowered from its current 8-percent down to 3.5-percent. What that means is if cities or counties want to go beyond that 3.5-percent, they must first get the approval of the taxpaying voters.
SB 2 also requires taxing units to post their budgets, tax rates, and tax rate calculation worksheets online.
The bill also makes numerous improvements to the appraisal and protest process, such as prohibiting an Appraisal Review Board from increasing the value of a taxpayer property above its initial value, increasing training requirements for ARB members and arbitrators, and entitling taxpayers to the evidence the appraisal district plans to present at their ARB hearing free of charge.
