- 4 days ago
Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) signs property tax relief into law.
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00:01Well, welcome everybody. Is my mic on? Okay, let's try again. Now we're on. Okay. Yes, all right. Thank you all so much for being here today. As you can tell, this is a very popular event, and I want to thank you all so much for coming.
00:22We had a little inadvertent publicity at first, and so a lot of people who were not officially on the invitation list came, and we have reserved these seats for those of you who were on the invitation list and who are residents of Robeson Ranch.
00:37Now, I'd like to welcome the governor, the speaker, and this amazing group of Texas legislators. They're in Denton County, Commissioner Precinct 4. So welcome. And I am Diane Edmonds, and I am the commissioner for Precinct 4 in Denton County. I'm running for re-election, and I'm so glad all of you all are here. You all can't vote for me.
00:58And I want to give a special shout-out to all of my neighbors that are here, all of our Robeson Ranch residents. Raise your hands, because we're so glad you're here. You love our governor, don't you?
01:15Everybody wanted to be here, governor, for this momentous occasion. We're absolutely delighted that the governor chose this location for the signing of HB 9, Senate Bill 23, and Senate Bill 4. Anybody got any idea why he chose Robeson Ranch?
01:33There's a rumor going around that there are a lot of seniors that live here. I don't think it's really true. I don't see any seniors. Oh, well, okay, one. Anyway, we're so glad to have you here, because you were especially kind to the seniors in this legislation.
01:51We kind of have a lot in common, Governor. When I first became a commissioner, it occurred to me that we didn't have a cap on what the seniors pay for county taxes, and we didn't have any kind of a homestead exemption.
02:06So in my first year, I championed those two things, and they passed. But I had it easier than you did. I only needed three votes, and I think you needed almost a hundred.
02:15That would be easier.
02:16Exactly. Exactly.
02:19Especially, he's one of three.
02:20Well, that's right. I was one of the three.
02:22Anyway, this is a much, much bigger deal than what my deal was, and we're so happy, because what you've done for seniors and those who are disabled, and to the ordinary homeowner, we have increased that exemption to huge amounts.
02:37We've got our tax assessor collector here, and I know she knows how important this is going to be.
02:43So, Governor, we're so happy to welcome you here, and if you don't mind, I want to take just a second.
02:48We've got some other elected officials here that I'd like to recognize.
02:52Commissioner Brandon Gill.
02:55Commissioner.
03:01Hey, Brandon, there's already three or four people running.
03:04Jump in.
03:05Okay.
03:05I'm so sorry.
03:06It said COM, and that was supposed to be CON.
03:08Congressman Brandon Gill.
03:09And then our county judge, Andy Eads.
03:16Our tax assessor collector, Dawn Way.
03:22And not the only cowboy in the room, but our sheriff, Tracy Murphy.
03:26We have Judge Susan Peel, who's here.
03:36And then, in addition to all of these wonderful representatives, we have a lot of senators, two of them from Denton County.
03:43So, Brent Hagenbu and Tan Parker, thank you all so much for what you do for us.
03:46And I want all of you to know we love you here in Denton County, particularly in Robeson Ranch.
03:56Governor, we have such a strong voting group here.
03:59I believe in your last election, the midterm election, that statewide was about 45% of the registered voters.
04:05We more than doubled that here in Robeson Ranch.
04:08So, y'all come on back any time, because we love voting for you.
04:13Well, thank you, Diane, for your introduction.
04:16Thank you for your service.
04:18It's great to be back at Robeson Ranch.
04:19I've been here many times.
04:21It's a great place to be, and there could be no better place to be here for the reason we're here today.
04:26One reason why we are here today is because of the leadership both of Lieutenant Governor Patrick as well as Speaker Dustin Burroughs.
04:33And on this legislation in particular, the leadership of Senator Bettencourt and State Representative Morgan Meyer.
04:42We're here today to talk about property taxes.
04:46Let me hear it.
04:47Do you think your property taxes are too high?
04:50Yes.
04:52So do I.
04:53And I'm going to sign three pieces of legislation that lower those taxes.
04:59Two of them deal with your homestead exemption.
05:01As a kind of reminder, if you look at the valuation of your house, a homestead exemption is going to exempt part of that value from taxation.
05:16When I became governor, that homestead exemption was $15,000.
05:22As we gather today, that homestead exemption is $100,000.
05:27I'm going to sign a law that will increase that exemption to $140,000.
05:35So for the first $140,000 evaluation of your home, it will not be subject to the school district property taxes, which is the largest bulk of your property tax bill.
05:54And this is Senate bill.
06:24Your homestead exemption has now gone up to $140,000.
06:41Now, I know that many of you all are good at math.
06:44Some of you are better at reading.
06:46For those who concentrate on reading,
06:49if you go from where the homestead exemption was
06:52when I first became governor, $15,000,
06:54to now $140,000, that's almost a 1,000% increase.
07:01Now, the second bill goes into what Diane was talking about
07:06because we do love our seniors,
07:09and I wish some were with us here today.
07:15Some of you are seniors.
07:16Some of you identify as seniors.
07:18A senior is 65 and older.
07:24For those who are 65 and older or disabled,
07:29that property tax exemption goes up beyond $140,000.
07:33It goes all the way up to $200,000.
07:37So, for the first $200,000 of valuation of your home,
07:50there's not going to be any school property tax that you have to pay.
07:54The reality is that the average tax,
07:57meaning more than half of Texas seniors,
08:00are not going to pay a school property tax at all
08:04after I sign this law.
08:08applause
08:09For seniors and disabled, their homestead exemption is now $200,000.
08:39I want to put together several pieces of this puzzle so you can understand what was accomplished
08:50this session as it concerned both the budget as well as taxes.
08:54When you add all the money together of what we're devoting to new money for property tax
09:01relief, that's $10 billion.
09:04For us to be able to maintain the property tax relief that we've provided you over the
09:08past 10 years, it requires an additional investment of $40 billion.
09:13Add those two together and you know that we spent $50 billion this session on property
09:20tax relief.
09:21Let me show you how truly unprecedented that is.
09:2625% a quarter of the Texas state budget is using money to return to you through tax cuts.
09:34No state in the history of America has devoted such a large percentage of their budget to
09:40tax relief in the United States of America.
09:50And as far as I'm concerned, we're not done yet.
09:53I think there's more that we should do.
10:01The state of Texas has four constitutional provisions that are spending limits for the
10:08state.
10:09Cities and counties, they don't have those same spending limits.
10:12It's time that cities and counties have a spending limit just like the state of Texas does, so
10:19they cannot drive up your property taxes anymore.
10:28There's also another type of property tax.
10:31It's a property tax on businesses, but it's not on the real estate property.
10:36It's on the personal property of the businesses.
10:39It could be things like tables or chairs.
10:42It could be computers.
10:43It could be phones.
10:44Whatever the case may be.
10:46That property, not the land, that would be a real estate tax.
10:51This is personal property, not non-real estate property.
10:55Anyway, for businesses, the first $2,500 of that is exempt right now.
11:02Well, that's not very much.
11:05And so we wanted to increase that by a lot.
11:10So the bill I'm going to sign increases the business personal property tax exemption from
11:18$2,500 all the way to $125,000.
11:23This is particularly helpful to all the small businesses out there that will help them meet
11:37the cost of rising prices.
11:40And by the way, all of these bills are by Senator Betancourt and Representative Morgan Meyer.
11:45This happens to be a House bill where Representative Morgan Meyer from the central part of Dallas
11:51led the way here.
11:53The A-Team, why not?
12:12For businesses in Texas, their personal property tax exemption is now up to $125,000.
12:18As I mentioned to begin with, we wouldn't be here today if it not had been for leadership
12:31of people like Speaker Dustin Burroughs.
12:33And I turn the mic over to him now.
12:35Thank you, Governor.
12:35No country, no state, no city, and no county can tax and spend their way into prosperity.
12:49That is why it is so important that we make sure that we have a low-tax state.
12:56When you look at the amount of money that we are investing in our budget, and the governor
12:59brought it up and gave you the numbers, it is unprecedented and historic.
13:03We continue, budget after budget, and especially this one, to take more of our revenues and help
13:10drive and maintain lower property taxes in the state of Texas, which is so important.
13:16The increase in the homestead exemption from $100,000 to $140,000 is the right thing to do.
13:22More taxpayers will get to keep more of their hard-earned money.
13:24Our seniors, doubling it to $200,000, it is going to make it a much easier place for them to live,
13:31to retire, and I am going to make a bold prediction.
13:34I think Texas could become a retirement destination because of doing things like this where seniors
13:39want to move here because of what we are doing for them.
13:43In our small businesses, the business of Texas is business, and that is the economic engine right now.
13:50In our small businesses, letting them keep more of their hard-earned money, they are going
13:54to put that money into growing their business, hire more employees, expanding.
13:59That is the type of capital that they are going to get to keep that will be a stimulus, that
14:04will make our economy continue to hum, which is why I am so proud that the Texas House, Chairman
14:10Meyer in the House, worked with Governor Abbott, who led the charge on this, who named this
14:14a priority in his state of the state.
14:16And Governor Patrick has made it a mission in the Senate and Betancourt, who I have worked
14:20with, a property tax brother on many of these issues, help get these across the finish line
14:25so that all Texans can share and deserve in this much-needed relief.
14:29Thank you, Governor.
14:37And now Senator Betancourt.
14:39Thank you, Governor.
14:40And I want to thank everyone here that voted for this and all those that will vote for it
14:45in November, because you get to do the ultimate choice.
14:49You get the chance to say yes to a $140,000 exemption on all your homes.
14:56Do I hear a dissenting vote?
14:57I don't think I will, okay?
14:59How about you get to say yes to a $200,000 over 65 exemption?
15:06Diane, I don't think I'm going to hear any dissenting votes here, am I?
15:08And you get to say yes to a business tax relief of $125,000, which helps all of our small businesses.
15:17The amount of money we're talking about here is extraordinary.
15:20The governor's talked about the fact this has been a $50 billion commitment.
15:24And in just the last three years, between these bills that we passed, $22.7 billion of tax relief,
15:31now $10 billion more, we're looking at saving the average home $1,750 when you say yes in November.
15:40But wait, we're not done yet.
15:42If you're over 65, that takes you up to $2,342.
15:46But wait, there's more because of work that Speaker Burroughs and I did when he was still a,
15:55well, I guess you were chairman right back then, right,
15:58before you had the wise decision to promote Morgan to chair, okay?
16:03We've actually done something that's even better.
16:06Every year as we raise the homeset exemption or cut the tax rate,
16:10because we're doing that now by six pennies,
16:13your over 65 bills go down and down and down every year.
16:19In fact, we've got senators here.
16:22I see Senator West was one of my early joint authors on this.
16:27His Senate district will probably be close to 75% to 80% of his homeowners will be paying zero property taxes, okay?
16:36Adam Minosa, who flew all the way in from the valley, and why not?
16:39He's got two counties that will have probably 80% to 90% of his over 65 exemption homeowners paying no tax at all.
16:51And why not?
16:52You've paid a lifetime of taxes already.
16:55And so here, the state of Texas makes the massive commitment to make sure that you can stay in your home for as long as you want to,
17:04because these exemptions, once you vote for them in November, will be there for as long as you own the home.
17:10And I think that is the testament to what this A-team has done.
17:16I kidded that it was Morgan and I, but you can't get anything done in the Texas legislature unless you have, in this case,
17:23180 votes, because we did have one unfortunate soul who was wayward, but that's another story.
17:29And it was not anybody on this stage, but more importantly, it's going to be your exemption for life if you vote yes in November.
17:38Your extension for life.
17:40And that means your exemption will be with you and your children and your grandchildren,
17:46because this state, once it's enshrined in the Constitution, and I think I can speak, you know,
17:52for the lieutenant governor on this and everyone else on this stage,
17:55we'll never back up from that commitment to Texas taxpayers.
17:59It's a great day for Texas taxpayers.
18:01Let's hear it.
18:02And now Representative Morgemeyer.
18:12Thank you, Governor.
18:13It's always great to go last, but what I would like to echo is the working relationship that we had in the House with the Senate.
18:25Chairman Betancourt, Lieutenant Governor Patrick, fantastic working partners.
18:29From day one of this session, when the speaker and I went over to meet with Governor Patrick and Chairman Betancourt,
18:34it was a tone of how do we get this done?
18:36How do we work together?
18:37How do we solve this problem?
18:39Which, whether you're in my district in Dallas or in Harris County or in El Paso or here in Denton,
18:46it is one of the number one issues.
18:47All of us, while knocking on doors, we hear about.
18:50We certainly hear about other issues as well.
18:52But I can tell you the one and most consistent issue is property tax relief.
18:56And we are not sitting here today without the leadership of Governor Abbott, Governor Patrick, and Speaker Burroughs.
19:03And I think this issue exemplifies many of the issues that we had come before us this session,
19:08where we were united to solve the problems of the citizens of the state of Texas and determined to do so from day one.
19:15And as a result of that, we have these type of results.
19:19So thank you, Governor.
19:19Appreciate it.
19:20Thank you very much.
19:20Thank you very much.
19:26Let me just add a little bit of further context of what we've done with regard to taxes.
19:33For one, as you heard Senator Betancourt talk about, these are all also by way of constitutional amendment.
19:40So our vision is this.
19:42We know there will be generations of other leaders leading the state.
19:46We want to make sure that we do more than just pass a law for this session that could be overturned by a majority next session.
19:53We want to make sure that we pass laws that are enduring that would require two-thirds votes,
19:58which mathematically would mean as it concerns increasing the tax.
20:01And in the lifetime of anybody in this room, you're going to get two-thirds votes to increase the tax.
20:06So there's going to be these three propositions, not just by law that I signed today,
20:11but also by constitutional amendment on the ballot this November for you to vote for.
20:16But that's added to what we've already done constitutionally.
20:21You'll help pass a constitutional amendment ensuring that for your lifetime,
20:26there's not going to be any income tax in the state of Texas.
20:29There's not going to be a death tax in the state of Texas.
20:32There's not going to be a capital gains tax in the state of Texas.
20:36And now we're going to be adding these to those constitutional prohibitions on taxes
20:43to make Texas the strongest, friendliest, tax-free state in the United States of America.
20:57Among the nearby representatives, one who is missing today for a reason,
21:01as Representative Richard Hayes, is celebrating his 50th anniversary on a trip with his family,
21:09and he wanted to be here.
21:11Now with that, we'll open up to questions to the press.
21:20Okay.
21:21Jack, I appreciate you not wasting any time getting off topic.
21:26Jack, I appreciate you not wasting any time getting off topic.
21:33Well, you burned yours already.
21:37I appreciate you not wasting any time getting off topic.
21:40But especially when you hear what I'm going to tell you, and that is I've got to,
21:47Jack, I appreciate you not wasting any time getting off topic.
21:59You burned yours already.
22:03But especially when you hear what I'm going to tell you,
22:07and that is I've got a thousand of these
22:11on my desk that I have to get through, and I haven't gotten
22:15to SB 3 yet, and so I can't tell you what the factors are.
22:19I'll tell you this, listen, there are meaningful
22:23positions and concerns on both sides of the issue, and I'll look into all of those and evaluate
22:27all of those. First somebody, go ahead.
22:31So first I will tell you that the director of DPS,
22:33Friedman Martin, could give you a more precise answer.
22:35I'll tell you basically what I understand was the fact, and that is there was a person on the
22:39Capitol grounds with the gun who seemingly had the intent to do harm to a legislator.
22:45No more defined than that. If you're on the Capitol grounds with a gun conveying that type of message,
22:51that's a credible threat that has to be taken seriously.
22:55You obviously saw what happened in Minnesota, and I think the director of DPS,
22:57the director of DPS, Friedman Martin, could give you a more precise answer.
22:59I'll tell you basically what I understand was the fact, and that is there was a person on the
23:03Capitol grounds with a gun who seemingly had the intent to do harm to a legislator.
23:09That's a credible threat that has to be taken seriously. You obviously saw what happened in Minnesota.
23:15We need all to make sure that nothing like that ever happens in the state of Texas.
23:20So DPS is on heightened alert. They work not just within the confines of DPS.
23:27They have joint task forces arrayed around the state of Texas that all do communications
23:32where they're gathering information both through social media sources as well as other sources
23:37to make sure they will have the most robust source of information and be able to address this in advance.
23:41I've seen them do it hundreds of times so that they're very effective at it,
23:46and they will work to ensure that not just members of the legislature,
23:50but can only anybody in the public is going to be free from some type of deranged attack like that.
23:56So first, I'll tackle the first part of your question that you put in there.
24:15You said that are deemed sanctuary cities. I think L.A. may be in that category.
24:20As you know, there is no sanctuary city in the state of Texas.
24:23I signed Senate Bill 4 many years ago that banned sanctuary cities in the state of Texas.
24:33That point aside, though, both the Texas Department of Public Safety and the Texas National Guard,
24:40they work in collaboration both with Border Patrol as well as with ICE
24:44to make sure that Texas is working now in partnership with the Trump administration
24:50to achieve their goal of removing people who are here illegally.
24:55Two more questions.
24:57Governor, going back to the tragedy that happened over the weekend,
25:01the Texas National Guard has sent a letter to you talking about the new
25:05report for the purposes that you can't talk about strategy,
25:10but are we at the point in our politics where there are more conversations
25:15we need to have about secreting for sort of lawmakers,
25:17or is it just a thing that we've read?
25:20So here's what has happened repeatedly,
25:23and that is there will be threats that will arise about one lawmaker or another.
25:28It could be at the state level or federal level, but a person here in Texas,
25:32where there will need to be an increase in security for that person.
25:35And it may exist for a week.
25:38Like, as I understand it, the threat that existed on Saturday,
25:42that person has been arrested.
25:44And so I think that threat has been removed.
25:47But we still must stay on guard.
25:50But here's the point.
25:52The DPS working with both federal and local officials,
25:56they will constantly gather information.
25:58If there's anybody or any group of people who are under a potential threat,
26:02they will elevate both their threat assessment as well as their threat protection
26:07for those individuals or those group of people.
26:09One more question, please.
26:11Governor, obviously there was a budget surplus this year that allowed you guys to take these actions.
26:16With the faith in the Constitution, should the votes approve that,
26:20how do you make sure the state is going overboard and doesn't have enough funds to pay for everything state?
26:26So you make several good points.
26:28One is we have a budget surplus.
26:30Texas has the largest budget surplus as of any state in the United States of America.
26:33And that's because of the hardworking men and women who have made Texas the number one state in the United States
26:39for most new jobs added.
26:41And so we have a robust economy that leads to that budget surplus.
26:44But we've been cautious with our approach to our budget,
26:49knowing there could be an economic downturn.
26:52There could be a recession.
26:53And so we have what's the amount in the rainy day fund now?
26:5624.
26:5724 billion.
26:5824 billion dollars in our rainy day fund.
27:03And we have some other reserve money to make sure that we will be able to continue to maintain
27:08the property tax relief in the future that we provide today.
27:12Thanks, everyone.
27:14Thank you all.
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