BILL ANALYSIS

H.B. 4158

By: Schofield

Ways & Means

Committee Report (Unamended)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Under state law, a residence homestead property tax ceiling is in place for the elderly or disabled under which the school district property taxes imposed on a residence homestead owned by a person 65 years of age or older or by a person with a disability are frozen so long as the person continues to own and live in that home. Many Texas homeowners rely on this tax ceiling to remain in their homes, but policymakers do not know exactly how many or how much money they are saving. This lack of readily available data hinders the ability of the legislature to pass good legislation pertaining to property taxation. H.B. 4158 seeks to address this issue by requiring the number of homesteads subject to this tax ceiling to be reported annually to the comptroller of public accounts and requiring the comptroller in turn to report that number to the legislature.

CRIMINAL JUSTICE IMPACT

It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly create a criminal offense, increase the punishment for an existing criminal offense or category of offenses, or change the eligibility of a person for community supervision, parole, or mandatory supervision.

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution.

ANALYSIS

H.B. 4158 amends the Tax Code to require the chief appraiser of an appraisal district, for each public school district in the appraisal district, to determine the number of residence homesteads of elderly or disabled persons subject to the limitation on school district tax increases for such individuals for the current tax year and, not later than September 1 of that tax year, report the number to the comptroller of public accounts in a form prescribed by the comptroller.

H.B. 4158 requires the comptroller, not later than November 1 of each tax year, to report to the lieutenant governor, the speaker of the house of representatives, and each member of the legislature the total number of residence homesteads in Texas subject to that limitation for that tax year, as reported to the comptroller by chief appraisers. The bill requires the report to include the number of those residence homesteads in each school district or a reference to where the information for each school district may be accessed.

H.B. 4158 applies only to a tax year beginning on or after the bill’s effective date.

EFFECTIVE DATE

January 1, 2024.