Press Items: Senator Paul Bettencourt — District 7

AUSTIN, TX – Senate Local Government Chairman Paul Bettencourt (R Houston) today released first of its kind statewide County by County Homestead Exemption data, which shows Record savings Texas homeowners have realized from multiple Legislature-driven increases to the school property tax homestead exemption.

“This first of its kind study found an amazing 1.449 million Over 65 and disabled homeowners pay ZERO ISD property taxes. ALSO 25% of general homesteads pay ZERO. That’s 949k homeowners that pay ZERO ISD property taxes. That means nearly 2.5 million Texas homeowners are paying ZERO on their school property tax bills! That’s 39.23% of 6.14 million Texas homesteads . HUGE NEWS! The average HE home ptax bill dropped from $1,037 to $896, a 13.5% cut, now under $1,000 statewide. The average senior homeowner still paying ISD tax bills saw their bill drop from $565 to $380, a 33% cut. This is the tax cut homeowners voted for!” Senator Bettencourt commented.

In testimony, 2025, 20% of Brazoria County homestead owners received a $0 school bill, while 61% of Over 65 and disabled homestead owners received a $0 school bill. “We experienced many calls and visits from our property owners questioning the accuracy of their tax bills, because they were used to a larger number there, so it did create questions. Once we walked through the bill, we were, with immense pleasure, able to confirm to those property owners that their bills were actually accurate, and that was due to the increased home exemptions that our legislators had passed,” Kristen Bulanek, Brazoria County Tax Assessor Collector, stated in her testimony. “They thought the zero property tax bill was a mistake,” she added.

According to the data:
(LINK: https://senate.texas.gov/members/d07/uploads/FINAL-SLGC-Sept-1st-Slide-Deck-with-graphics.pdf)

• 39.23% of 6.14 million homesteads statewide pay $0 ISD tax.
• 25% of 3.72 million general homesteads pay $0 ISD tax, about 949k homes.
• Almost 61% of 2.34 million Over 65 and disabled homesteads pay $0 ISD tax, 1.449 million homes.
• Statewide average General Homestead ISD bills decreased from $1,037 to $896, down 13.57% in ONE YEAR.
• Average Over 65 and disabled ISD bills dropped 32.72 % statewide, too!
• Total reported Comptroller ISD levies fell from $41.668 billion in 2024 to $41.65 billion in 2025.
• 234 counties, 92% of Texas counties, have half or more of their Over 65 & disabled homesteads paying $0 ISD tax.

Chandler Crouch, researching evidence in Tarrant County that value freezes of residential properties resulted in one third of homeowners “losing” out as their appraised values could have dropped, plus he estimated “80% of 600,000 taxpayers “lost” because of an arbitrary freeze that shifted the property tax burden over to lower value homesteads.”

“Every session our board approves legislative priorities, and one of them for the past three sessions has been property tax relief. People may ask why the school board is advocating for property tax relief? It is the biggest tax people pay. And believe me, with high home values in our community, we hear about it as trustees.” Rich Sena, Boerne ISD Trustee, remarked during testimony.

“I really could not be prouder of the fact we’ve found out what's really occurring, like a large unreported property tax cut! We now know who is paying these reduced bills, by how much, and in what county. And the great success: People have paid a lifetime of taxes know that when they finally pay zero on their property tax bill, it won’t go up again.” Senator Bettencourt concluded.

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