Eliminate Property Taxes in Texas

Originally published on Substack. 

​​If you want a clear snapshot of what’s contributing to Texas’ affordability crisis, look no further than property tax bills.

A recent Houston Chronicle article by EricaGrieder highlighted just how punishing these taxes have become in fast-growing suburbs of Houston.

​Cities like Conroe, Pearland, and The Woodlands now rank among the highest in property-tax burdens in the nation when measured as a share of household income.

In Conroe, homeowners pay a median property tax bill of nearly $5,900 on a median household income just over $114,000—5.2% of income. Pearland isn’t far behind near 5%. Even high-income areas like The Woodlands face bills approaching $9,000 a year.

This isn’t just a Texas problem, but it is becoming a Texas test. And the verdict is clear: property taxes are harsh, unworkable, and incompatible with prosperity.

Why Property Taxes Are So Harmful
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Property taxes don’t rise automatically because “the market” failed. They rise because local governments choose to spend more, then set the tax rate to collect more taxes that cover spending.

Local taxing entities—school districts, cities, counties, and special districts—set tax rates every year. Those rates are applied to the county’s appraised values that tend to rise quickly over time, especially in growing communities. Even when officials claim they’ve “lowered the tax rate,” it is often not enough to offset higher appraisals when spending continues to grow.

In other words, appraisals help set the base—but spending decisions determine the bill and the tax rate to get there.

That’s why property taxes are uniquely destructive. All taxes are destructive but some more than others. Families can budget for purchases and sales taxes. They can plan their work or leisure around income taxes. But property tax payments are due regardless of income, job loss, or retirement—driven by government budgets, not household choice.

Data from SmartAsset confirm this reality nationwide.

Their 2025 study shows Texas ranks among the states with the highest effective property-tax burdens, a point echoed by the Tax Foundation.

This tax system punishes homeownership. It turns ownership into something closer to renting from the government.

The Moral Case Against Property Taxes

There’s also a deeper issue here—one that often gets ignored.

Property taxes violate the basic principle of property rights.

If you must keep paying the government simply to remain in your home, then you don’t truly own it. And for seniors on fixed incomes, young families stretching to buy their first home, or small businesses operating on thin margins, that’s not just inefficient—it’s unjust.

These taxes are fueling the affordability crisis created by years of bad policy: excessive spending, loose fiscal rules, and governments that grow faster than the taxpayers’ ability to pay for it.

Families didn’t create this problem. Government did.

A Responsible Path to Elimination

The good news is that eliminating property taxes can be done responsibly—without gimmicks, carve-outs, or distortions like ever-larger homestead exemptions, flawed appraisal caps, or arbitrary age freezes, which have been thrown around by key leaders in Texas.

The most realistic path forward currently is likely a surplus buydown strategy, paired with strict spending limits, which Gov. Abbott rightfully made a local spending limit the number one item in his property tax plan.

Here’s how it works:

• At the state level, use budget surpluses—generated by economic growth, not tax hikes—above a strict spending limit to permanently compress (“buy down”) tax rates and eliminate school district M&O property taxes, starting immediately and continuing until they reach zero.
• At the local level, cities, counties, and special purpose districts should adopt the same approach simultaneously, using surpluses above the state’s population growth plus inflation to eliminate their property taxes over time. In places that can’t, they should consider refining in spending to reduce property taxes, join a compact with nearby localities for services and funds, and consider ways for more growth in a sales tax base to eliminate them.
• Rollback rates must become true no-new-revenue rates, and exceeding them should require a supermajority vote of voters, not politicians, on a uniform election date.

The key is discipline. None of this works without strict limits on spending growth, ideally capped below population growth plus inflation. Spending is the ultimate driver of property taxes—and the ultimate burden of government.

What About Other Options?

There is a faster, more comprehensive option: redesigning the tax system by broadening the sales-tax base without a VAT while keeping the state-local sales tax rate competitive, potentially eliminating property taxes much sooner than the surplus buy-down approach. The state’s sales tax rate would just cover the school district property taxes and local governments’ sales tax rates would cover their property taxes where possible.

My research finds that we could be at a state-local sales tax rate of at most 8.75% with a broader sales tax base from 8.25% today to eliminate school district M&O property taxes.

Any additional sales tax revenue collected by local governments at their lower rates from the broader sales tax base and dynamic growth must go to reducing their property taxes through tax rate cuts.

This allows lower local property taxes, then local governments can use the surplus buydown approach to eliminate the rest, where possible.

Done correctly, dynamic growth effects and spending restraint should lower the overall tax burden and deliver immediate property ownership to all Texans.

In my view, this redesign approach is stronger.

But politically, the surplus buydown seems the most viable path today—and importantly, it still moves us in the right direction.

Either way, the non-negotiable principle remains the same: less spending, not higher taxes.

States like Florida are beginning to explore similar pro-growth approaches, recognizing that affordability and competitiveness depend on limiting government’s footprint—not expanding it.

The Bottom Line

Property taxes are not a law of nature. They are a policy choice.

Texas can lead by choosing a better path—one that respects ownership, restores affordability, and lets families keep more of what they earn.

Eliminating property taxes won’t solve every problem overnight, but it would remove one of the biggest obstacles standing between Texans and prosperity.

The question isn’t whether we can afford to do this.

It’s whether we can afford not to.