Texas Senate report: 40% to 60% of homeowners pay no school property taxes - The Center Square

State Sen. Paul Bettencourt, a Republican from Houston, announced the findings Tuesday during a Texas Senate Committee on Local Government hearing. His office spent roughly four months pulling property tax data from all 254 Texas counties into a single database, something Bettencourt said had never been done before at a statewide level.

For Lubbock homeowners, that context matters. Lubbock ISD property taxes have long been one of the heavier line items on a tax bill, and any shift in who actually pays them touches a wide range of households across the city, from older residents in established neighborhoods like Tech Terrace to younger families stretched thin by rising home values.

The numbers suggest a significant share of Texas homeowners have already been shielded from school district tax bills through exemptions and legislative changes Bettencourt authored. Seniors and disabled homeowners see the largest relief, with nearly two out of three paying nothing to their local ISD. Working-age homeowners still come in at four in ten.

Texas now has the first comprehensive look at who is actually paying school property taxes, and the answer is that a large slice of homeowners is not.