TAC - School Finance: The Elephant in the Property Tax Equation

Tarrant County Judge Glenn Whitley made waves talking about the state’s role in rising property taxes earlier this year. Armed with hard numbers and hard truths about the state’s school finance system, he put a renewed focus on how Texas funds education. Whitley’s message is simple: surging property taxes are a direct result of the state’s school finance system, not cities and counties. Local property taxpayers are picking up billions more for public schools while the state spends billions less. And it’s by design. “In the last session of the Legislature, the House tried to put more money into public education. The Senate tried to reduce it by about $2.5 billion. But the budget that they ultimately ended up passing was based upon the assumption that property taxes would go up 14 percent in fiscal year ‘18 and ’19,” Whitely said at TAC’s 2018 Legislative Conference in August. Public education is the most significant part of the property tax bill, and it keeps getting bigger. Rising

Tarrant County Judge Glenn Whitley made waves talking about the state’s role in rising property taxes earlier this year. Armed with hard numbers and hard truths about the state’s school finance system, he put a renewed focus on how Texas funds education. Whitley’s message is simple: surging property taxes are a direct result of the state’s school finance system, not cities and counties. Local property taxpayers are picking up billions more for public schools while the state spends billions less. And it’s by design. “In the last session of the Legislature, the House tried to put more money into