{"id":31570,"date":"2025-11-02T03:40:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-02T03:40:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/31570\/"},"modified":"2025-11-02T03:40:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-02T03:40:09","slug":"proposed-amendments-on-texas-ballot-could-impact-el-paso-homeowners-property-tax-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/31570\/","title":{"rendered":"Proposed amendments on Texas ballot could impact El Paso homeowner\u2019s property tax bill"},"content":{"rendered":"

EL PASO, Texas (KTSM<\/a>) \u2014 Tuesday, Nov. 4 is election day, and on the ballot, El Paso homeowners will have the opportunity to vote on multiple proposed amendments to the Texas constitution that could have a significant impact on their property tax bills.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would say these propositions are more important to El Paso than almost any other county in the state, due to the high tax rate,\u201d Richie Gill, a tax expert with Gill, Denson & Company Tax Advisors, said. \u201cMany property owners (in El Paso) are paying upwards of two and a half, to 2.7% to 2.8%, on their property taxes, which is very high compared to other parts of the state.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are 17 total proposed amendments on the ballot for Texans to vote on. Ten focus on tax policy, and Gill said seven are related to property taxes.<\/p>\n

Gill said the most important and impactful of those seven propositions is Prop. 13, which would increase the property tax exemption for school district property taxes from $100,000 to $140,000 of the market value of a homestead.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s definitely a positive for anyone that\u2019s a homeowner in El Paso. It\u2019s going to save them money. My estimation is the average homeowner in El Paso is going to save around $432 if it gets approved, based on the increase from the previous $100,000 to $140,000 exemption,\u201d Gill said.<\/p>\n

Gill said that Prop. 13 won\u2019t cost school districts revenue they would otherwise collect from these taxes, because the state will be reimbursing them for the loss.<\/p>\n

\u201cSchools will actually not lose funding for this proposition. In particular, the state will reimburse the schools. Now, whether the state can sustain that indefinitely is another question. Currently, the state does have the funds in the foreseeable future to fund this,\u201d Gill said.<\/p>\n

El Paso County Commissioner for Precinct 2, David Stout, said that courtesy won\u2019t be extended from the state to the county for several propositions which he said could cost the county millions of dollars.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really wish that the state would do that for the county as well when it comes to propositions seven and nine,\u201d Stout said. \u201cSeventy percent of the county\u2019s budget is already going to what we call unfunded mandates. That means the state forces us to do certain things, provide certain programs and services at the local level, but they make us pay for it locally. They do not reimburse us. They do not give us money to pay for those things.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stout said those two propositions combined could cost El Paso County over $4 million to their budget, while not actually benefiting all El Paso homeowners.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you give a homestead exemption to a certain group, that group will receive that. But if you\u2019re not part of that group, then the amount of money that the county will miss out on because of that exemption that is given, will have to be spread out amongst the rest of the taxpayers who are not part of that group,\u201d Stout said.<\/p>\n

If approved, Prop. 7 would establish a property tax exemption for the spouses of military veterans who died from a service-related disease. Prop. 9 would provide a tax exemption of up to $125,000 of the market value of businesses\u2019 inventory or equipment.<\/p>\n

Stout said that the county could also have to spend up to about $14 million dollars if Proposition 3 were approved \u2013 Prop. 3 would deny bail to individuals accused of certain violent or sexual offenses punishable as a felony.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen you add on the bail denial proposition three, which is going to increase our jail costs because we\u2019re going to have to have about 300 more people in our jail, on our dime. The state is not reimbursing us for that,\u201d Stout said.<\/p>\n

If all the propositions were approved, Stout said it would further strain the county\u2019s budget. He said that during the latest budget cycle they already had to cut all the department\u2019s operating budgets by 5%.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt puts us in a very difficult situation in the commissioners court because, as our discretionary funds begin to shrink when those unfunded mandates continue to grow and further burden our budget. We have to make difficult decisions as to whether we start cutting personnel and we start cutting services,\u201d Stout said.<\/p>\n

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTSM 9 News. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) \u2014 Tuesday, Nov. 4 is election day, and on the ballot, El Paso homeowners…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":31571,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[20747,138,1060,140,20749,139,11039,6608,2063,20748],"class_list":{"0":"post-31570","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-el-paso","8":"tag-david-stout","9":"tag-el-paso","10":"tag-el-paso-county","11":"tag-el-paso-headlines","12":"tag-el-paso-homeowners","13":"tag-el-paso-news","14":"tag-homestead-exemption","15":"tag-property-tax","16":"tag-property-taxes","17":"tag-richie-gill"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31570","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=31570"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31570\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}