{"id":230349,"date":"2026-04-01T15:09:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T15:09:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/230349\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T15:09:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T15:09:14","slug":"greg-abbott-touts-campaign-plan-to-end-school-property-taxes-in-texas-during-houston-area-visit-houston-public-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/230349\/","title":{"rendered":"Greg Abbott touts campaign plan to end school property taxes in Texas during Houston-area visit \u2013 Houston Public Media"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t\t<img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-547762\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Image-2026-03-31T165036.267.jpg\" alt=\"Texas Gov. Greg Abbott addresses the Texas Independent Producers &amp; Royalty Owners Association at their annual convention.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\"   data-eio=\"p\"\/>Texas Gov. Greg Abbott addresses the Texas Independent Producers &amp; Royalty Owners Association at their annual convention.<\/p>\n<p>Gov. Greg Abbott touted plans to end property taxes used to pay for public schools in Texas as he met with Galveston County commissioners on Tuesday morning and later addressed oil and gas producers at a conference in the afternoon.<\/p>\n<p>The governor unveiled his plan late last year as part of his campaign promises to lower property taxes, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2025\/12\/09\/greg-abbott-schools-property-tax-cut-election-2026\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The Texas Tribune<\/a> reported.<\/p>\n<p>On Tuesday, the governor used Galveston County as an example for what he says other counties around Texas should be doing to lower property taxes.<\/p>\n<p>Sign up for the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.houstonpublicmedia.org\/hellohouston\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Hello, Houston!<\/a> daily newsletter to get local reports like this delivered directly to your inbox.<\/p>\n<p>Abbott claimed one reason property taxes go up is due to increased spending by property tax jurisdictions, such as local school districts.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Galveston County has proven that even in a growing county, they have the ability to live within their means and not spend excessively and we expect every local property taxing jurisdiction to be able to achieve the same goal,&#8221; Abbott said.<\/p>\n<p>Abbott said funding for public education should come solely from the state, not homeowners. He claimed the annual surplus the Texas government has had for the past four years is far more than what would be needed to make up that cost.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The state should be fully responsible for funding education in the state of Texas as opposed to your homestead,&#8221; Abbott said. <\/p>\n<p>RELATED: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.houstonpublicmedia.org\/articles\/education\/2025\/03\/10\/515609\/how-property-taxes-and-school-funding-are-linked-in-texas\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">How property taxes and school funding are linked in Texas<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Galveston County Judge Mark Henry touted an almost 50% cut in the county&#8217;s property tax rate in the last 15 years.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It\u2019s pretty simple to do. I don\u2019t understand why others don\u2019t understand how to do it. You don\u2019t do anything that\u2019s not a core function of county government,&#8221; Henry said.<\/p>\n<p>Abbott offered similar remarks at a conference for Texas oil and gas producers Tuesday afternoon.<\/p>\n<p>The governor started his speech by praising workforce development projects, explaining how the state&#8217;s government is working to address Texas&#8217; water needs and touting an oil field theft prevention unit in the Texas Department of Public Safety <a href=\"https:\/\/gov.texas.gov\/news\/post\/governor-abbott-signs-oilfield-theft-protection-pro-growth-legislation-into-law\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">created by the state legislature<\/a> last year.<\/p>\n<p>RELATED: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.houstonpublicmedia.org\/articles\/news\/politics\/2025\/12\/22\/539396\/texas-property-tax-cuts-homestead-exemption-2026-election\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Texas Republicans propose new property tax cuts as campaign season kicks off<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Then, he shifted to property taxes. In addition to calling for the end of school property taxes, Abbott proposed limits on appraisals and local governments&#8217; ability to increase these taxes. He also said homeowners should be able to vote on new property taxes.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;When that is done, everyone\u2019s property tax bill is going to be more than cut in half,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>The governor&#8217;s calls to decrease property taxes come as many public schools continue to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.houstonpublicmedia.org\/articles\/education\/2026\/02\/26\/544580\/houston-school-closures-hisd-board\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">face financial burdens<\/a> and fight for more <a href=\"https:\/\/www.houstonpublicmedia.org\/articles\/news\/education-news\/2025\/05\/30\/522625\/texas-8-5b-school-funding-plan-is-headed-to-abbotts-desk-what-it-means-for-students-and-teachers\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">state funding<\/a>. A new <a href=\"https:\/\/www.houstonpublicmedia.org\/articles\/education\/2026\/01\/04\/539684\/texas-school-voucher-esa-houston-isd\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">$1 billion voucher-like program<\/a> pushed by Abbott will allow Texas families to use taxpayer money for private school tuition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Texas Gov. Greg Abbott addresses the Texas Independent Producers &amp; Royalty Owners Association at their annual convention. Gov.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":230350,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[163,1182,6606,89067,7216,12597,6944,11039,56,58,57,66,223,287,2063,27],"class_list":{"0":"post-230349","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston","8":"tag-education","9":"tag-education-news","10":"tag-finances","11":"tag-funding-public-school","12":"tag-galveston","13":"tag-galveston-county","14":"tag-governor-greg-abbott","15":"tag-homestead-exemption","16":"tag-houston","17":"tag-houston-headlines","18":"tag-houston-news","19":"tag-local","20":"tag-news","21":"tag-politics","22":"tag-property-taxes","23":"tag-texas"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230349"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230349\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/230350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}