Bill: HJR 67, 85(R) - 2017

Committee

House Ways & Means

Vote Recommendation

Vote Recommendation Economic Freedom Property Rights Personal Responsibility Limited Government Individual Liberty
No Negative Neutral Neutral Negative Neutral

Author(s)

Dwayne Bohac

Bill Caption

Proposing a constitutional amendment authorizing the legislature to provide for an exemption from ad valorem taxation of all or part of the market value of the residence homestead of a Purple Heart recipient or the surviving spouse of a Purple Heart recipient.

Fiscal Notes

From the LBB: the resolution alone would have no fiscal implication to the State, other than the cost of publication. Any additional fiscal implication would be attributable to the corresponding enabling legislation. The cost to the State for publication of the resolution is $114,369.

Bill Analysis

HJR 67 would propose a constitutional amendment to allow the legislature to grant a property tax exemption for all or part of the market value of the residence homestead of a Purple Heart recipient. This resolution would also establish conditions for the surviving spouse to receive the exemption. 

Vote Recommendation Notes

Providing tax exemptions for one group over another is a violation of our limited government principle. Special exemptions for preferred classes pick winners and losers in the tax system and shrink the tax base leaving ever fewer people shouldering the full freight of property taxes and making it less likely they will see property tax relief in the future. Our property tax system should be low rate, broad based, and equitable for all taxpayers. 

It is worth noting that so many special tax exemptions have been passed in previous sessions that some counties, particularly those with high populations of military veterans who have been the beneficiaries of many of these exemptions, are now having major budget problems. The unintended consequence of these exemptions has been to crash county budgets so that now those counties are coming to the legislature asking to have their budgets back-filled with state subsidies - essentially requiring other counties to make up for their tax losses. 

For these reasons we oppose HJR 67.

Source URL (retrieved on 04/18/2024 11:04 PM): http://reports.texasaction.com/bill/85r/hjr67?print_view=true