Texas Politicians and Property Taxes
Texas politicians are promising to “eliminate property taxes.”
It polls at 80%. It wins elections.
And it is a mathematical lie.
Texas runs on a two-legged stool.
Most states have three revenue sources: Income Tax, Sales Tax, Property Tax.
We banned income tax. We banned wealth tax. Both written into the constitution.
That leaves us balancing the 8th-largest economy on Earth on two legs.
Property taxes generate $81 billion a year. Schools. Police. Fire. Roads.
You can’t delete $81 billion. You have to replace it.
The only lever left is sales tax.
To replace property tax revenue, we’d need a state sales tax above 20%.
A $40,000 truck costs $8,000 in tax at the dealership.
Every shirt. Every appliance. Every taco. Plus 20%.
“But Florida doesn’t have this problem!”
Florida exports its tax burden to 135 million tourists a year. Families from Ohio fund Florida schools every time they visit Disney World.
Texas doesn’t have Disney World.
“What about Tennessee?”
Tennessee has the highest combined sales tax in America. And they tax groceries.
Texas exempts groceries.
To copy Tennessee, you’d pay tax on bread, milk, and eggs.
Here’s what nobody talks about.
Property taxes are local. Your school board levies them. Your city council controls them.
If the state eliminates property tax, the state becomes the sole funder of every school district.
You know the golden rule? “He who has the gold, makes the rules.”
State pays 100% of the bills. State makes 100% of the decisions.
“Elimination” sounds like freedom. It’s centralization.
Now the math gets ugly.
Property taxes hit wealthy homeowners and commercial investors the hardest.
Elimination benefits them most.
Sales taxes hit the poor.
A 20+% sales tax crushes low-income families who spend every dollar they earn.
Renters make up 38% of Texas. Landlords won’t lower rent because taxes vanish. Markets don’t work that way. But renters pay 20+% more for every good they buy.
“Elimination” is a tax cut for landlords and a tax hike for working families.
So what’s the real solution?
It’s boring. It’s happening now. It works.
Tax Rate Compression.
When oil and gas booms, Texas fills the Rainy Day Fund.
The state uses that surplus to pay school districts direct. Districts lower their tax rates.
Your mill rate is lower today than five years ago, even if your home value is up.
The state raised the Homestead Exemption to $100,000. That wipes out taxes on a huge chunk of your home’s value.
Not a headline. A managed reduction. Local control intact.
And here’s the part that matters for investors:
Texas is one of the fastest-growing economies in America.
Population up. Jobs up. Consumption up.
That growth keeps generating surpluses, which the state uses to compress school taxes again and again.
For homeowners and commercial owners, that means one thing:
Mill rates will likely keep drifting down over time, even as values rise.
You don’t need a fake promise of “elimination” to win.
You need a strong economy and steady compression.
Next time a politician promises to “end” property taxes, check the math.
They aren’t offering a free lunch.
They’re offering a different bill.
-Barret Linburg
The only state tax Abbott can influence are the property taxes associated with school districts and some of the districts spend wildly on tax money that comes in from out of their districts. La Joya spent $20 million on a water park paid through school taxes that town didn't pay for. Superintendents all over the state are earning close to 1/2 million dollars and the staff under them make 5 times what a teacher makes. HISD (Houston) is being administered directly by the state because of corruption.
Some districts have sports complexes that rival NFL and professional baseball team's facilities. Do those communities get subsidized too?
Make the wealthy communities pay for their extravagance and set aside a chunk from the Texas Permanent School Fund for the ones that can't afford the routine costs of educating our kids.