LG Forum Reveals at Least One Thing State House Candidates Agree On
State Rep. Stan Kitzman and his opponent in the State House District 85 race, Dennis Geesaman, disagree on a lot of topics. But one issue they both support is Governor Greg Abbott’s plan to eliminate a huge chunk of school property taxes.
Abbott has made this proposal a cornerstone of his reelection campaign.
“The largest part of your property tax bill is your school district property tax,” Abbott said in a recent appearance on Joe Pags radio show. “The State of Texas should pay that school district payment, not the taxpayers and homeowners in the State of Texas.”
Abbott’s plan calls for the State to fully-fund the maintenance and operations budget for each independent school district in Texas. In Texas, public school property taxes are divided in two categories: maintenance and operations (M&O) and interest and sinking (I&S).
As the name implies, the M&O portion of the property tax rate pays for routine maintenance and operations of the school district. It pays for teacher salaries, books, computers, fuel, and just about everything else for the day-today operations of the school.
The I&S portion of the tax rate pays down debt. Most often, school districts incur debt when voters pass a bond to pay for new facilities or facility upgrades. Sometimes bonds are used for other costly purchases, such as when a district needs to upgrade its school bus fleet or security systems.
Abbott says a surplus in the state budget should cover the cost. His plan will require approval from the State lawmakers. Both candidates in the local state house race support that plan.
“The governor has his plan coming up, we’re in support of that,” Kitzman said at the Frisch Auf candidate forum in La Grange. “And if we can eliminate property taxes, we’re going to get there.
“It has been a struggle as to whether the state or the local level should be funding, especially ISDs,” Kitzman said later in the forum. “The mood, especially after the last two sessions, has been to not only keep increasing the state’s portion of your ISD budget but to eventually lead to zero on that. And we do feel like there’s money in the surplus, as has been stated. But that all hinges on the Texas economy staying strong and not only being the 8th largest economy in the world, but hopefully becoming the 7th largest economy in the world.”
Geesaman said he would eventually like to see no property taxes at all on homestead properties.
“The solution that the governor has already proposed, I think, is a good way to go and it’s a good start. I was already thinking the goal there would be to take the surplus – anytime we have a surplus – it goes back to the taxpayers. And then instead of spending any surplus on expanded and new programs, put that back and put the ISD M&O into the budget. There’s enough money there to actually fund the ISD M&O. And then we could shuffle the rest of it around and actually take the Homestead property taxes down to zero.”
Kitzman suggested that casino gambling might provide a source of revenue for the state to help end property taxes, but Geesaman said he does not support casino gambling in Texas.