Appraisal Districts & Homestead Exemptions
- Tom Wolfe
- 2 days ago
- 2 min read
TCCRI provides background on key questions relating to property taxes.
Senate Committee on Local Government
As the wording of the interim charge notes, the Legislature (and voters) have approved significant increases in the homestead exemption over the last decade. All four of the most recent increases (in 2015, 2022, 2023, and 2025) were approved by at least 79 percent of voters, a testament to the popularity of reducing homeowners’ property tax burdens.
Identifying the percentage of Texas homeowners that no longer pay school property taxes due to these increases in the homestead exemption is challenging, although with sufficient time it could be done by an exhaustive review of the records of all 254 county appraisal districts.
A rough “back of the envelope” answer to this question, however, can be derived using data from the American Community Survey (ACS) done by the U.S. Census Bureau. According to that survey. Table B25075 of that survey asks owners in owner-occupied housing units what the estimated value of their housing unit is. In the 2024 survey, there were an estimated 7.13 million such units in Texas. Of that amount, 1.25 million had an estimated value below $150,000. That $150,000 figure is very close to the current $140,000 homestead exemption.
A county appraisal district (CAD) exists in each county in Texas, and its borders are the same as the applicable county’s. The governance of an CAD varies somewhat depending on the applicable county’s population. If the county has fewer than 75,000 people, the CAD’s board of directors (BOD) consists of five people appointed by the taxing units that are located in the county’s boundaries. If the county assessor-collector is not among those five people, he or she serves as a non-voting director. Members serve two-year terms (other than a county assessor-collector serving as a nonvoting director), and the applicable taxing units can provide that the terms are staggered. Notably, the taxing units within the CAD can authorize the BOD to have up to 13 members.
The appointment of the BOD results from the vote of the taxing units that lie within the CAD. Each taxing unit’s votes are proportional to the ratio of property taxes it imposed in the CAD in the preceding year over the property taxes imposed in the CAD by all taxing units in the CAD in the preceding year. Cumulative voting is allowed; that is, a taxing unit may direct all of its votes to one candidate, or “sprinkle” its votes among various candidates for the BOD.
In counties with at least 75,000 residents, there are nine directors. Five area elected by the taxing units in the same manner that applies in counties with fewer than 75,000 people, three are elected by county voters, and the county assessor-collector serves as an ex officio board member. Members serve staggered four-year terms.
Read the full testimony in the link above.
