Patrick eyes end of property taxes
Lieutenant governor also orders senators to study possible ban on some hemp products
Less than a year after Texas lawmakers agreed to $18 billion in property tax cuts, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has directed senators to study how much it would cost to eliminate them entirely.
Patrick, who leads the Senate, has ordered legislators to study a host of policies ahead of the upcoming legislative session, including whether delta-8 and delta-9 hemp products should be banned in Texas and how the state should regulate artificial intelligence. But the property tax issue, which dominated much of last year’s regular legislative session and two special sessions, may be the highest-profile item on the agenda.
In a news release, Patrick said “continued property tax relief” would be a top conservative priority when the Legislature reconvenes in Austin next January. The Republican tasked senators with identifying the best policy combinations to continue cutting tax bills, and he asked them to determine how much it would cost the state to eliminate school maintenance and operation property taxes, all school property taxes and all property taxes.
While compiling that report, Patrick asked senators to review how the state would raise money to cover the losses and whether that would hurt Texas’ ability to respond to natural disasters and other emergencies.
“For example, determine the effect on other state programs if general revenue were used to fully replace school property taxes, particularly during economic downturns,” the lieutenant governor wrote.
Gov. Greg Abbott last year asked the GOP-led Legislature to pass a massive property tax cut
through “compression,” which cuts school property taxes by replacing that revenue with state money, with the eventual goal of scrapping property taxes completely. That’s been a major priority for some Texas Republicans over the years, and it’s been championed by the Texas Public Policy Foundation, an influential right-leaning think tank in Austin.
Still, Patrick’s request to study the subject doesn’t necessarily mean it’s in the stars for the Legislature. Last year, the lieutenant governor — who has spent much of his political career focused on property tax reductions — called the prospect of eliminating property taxes a “fantasy.”
“If we eliminated property taxes in the next two years, we would spend every dollar in our budget,” Patrick said at a news conference in June. “There would be no funding for public education, no funding for health care, no funding for law enforcement. If you have no money from property taxes, you have no money left to do anything.”
Patrick was a major advocate for increasing the homestead exemption from $40,000 to $100,000, allowing Texas’ roughly 5.7 million homeowners to shave that amount off the value of their primary residence. That ended up in last year’s final deal, alongside about $12 billion in compression.
Patrick also called on state senators to look at banning delta-8 and delta-9 hemp products, which provide a high similar to marijuana.
He has long opposed legalizing marijuana and has repeatedly blocked bills over the years that would lower the penalty for possessing small amounts of the drug.
Recreational marijuana use is illegal in Texas. People can access products with low THC levels for certain medical conditions, but the state’s medical marijuana program is more restrictive than those in most other states, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Delta-8, typically found in the form of edibles or vape cartridges, has exploded in popularity since 2019 after a new federal law reclassified the plant from an illegal drug to an agricultural commodity. Texas subsequently legalized hemp production.
Hemp products in the state can have only up to a 0.3% concentration of delta-9 THC, which is synthetically made and induces the high associated with marijuana. There is no limit on delta-8 THC, which can cause a similar feeling, especially at high dosages.
The Texas Department of State Health Services is engaged in an ongoing legal battle over the legality of delta-8, but in the meantime, the courts have allowed it to remain on shelves.
Delta-8 products grossed over $2 billion in sales in 2023, according to a report by the Chicagobased Brightfield Group, a market research firm that studies the cannabis industry.
Past proposals to ban delta-8 products have gotten pushback from veterans groups that say the products help veterans deal with ailments including chronic pain and post-traumatic stress disorder. Proponents of the ban say the Legislature never intended to legalize products that make people high.
In 2019, a Patrick spokesperson told the Texas Tribune that the lieutenant governor is “strongly opposed to weakening any laws against marijuana (and) remains wary of the various medicinal use proposals that could become a vehicle for expanding access to this drug.”
Patrick’s request to legislators called for “recommendations to further regulate the sale” of delta-8 and delta-9 products and urged the lawmakers to “suggest legislation to stop retailers who market these products to children.”
In 2021, state Sen. Charles Perry, R-Lubbock, added language to a bill that would include a ban on delta-8. That conflicted with a House version of the bill, and lawmakers ultimately failed to come up with a compromise.
Patrick also asked senators to investigate incentives for thermal power generation, the impact of bitcoin mining on the power grid, housing affordability and the role of “charitable bail organizations” that provide bail for defendants.