Texas House wants to use federal Covid relief funds to cut property taxes

Texas House wants to use federal COVID relief funds to send out $525 checks — but only to homeowners

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Texas Republicans want to use billions in federal pandemic relief to send checks to homeowners just ahead of next year’s November elections — and call it property tax relief. House lawmakers are pushing a proposal that would put $525 checks in the mailboxes of some 5.7 million homeowners who claim a homestead exemption — by tapping $3 billion sent to the state under the federal American Rescue Plan Act, the $1.9 trillion stimulus bill aimed at pandemic relief. Senate Bill 1, which passed out of the House on Friday afternoon, is a roundabout way for Republican legislators to deliver on a longtime pet issue — property tax relief — without running afoul of a federal rule barring the use of stimulus dollars for tax cuts.

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“Here’s the problem: A third of Texans don’t own their property,” state Rep. Gene Wu, D-Houston, said during debate on the House floor. “So none of this $3 billion would go to the one-third of Texans who rent. Not a penny.”

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The checks would arrive no later than Sept. 1 — about a month before voters head to the polls next year for early voting in the November midterm elections. Dick Lavine, senior fiscal analyst with the liberal-leaning Every Texan, blasted the proposal as a “transparent political ploy.” “They’ll have to print the check on legal size paper to fit the signatures of all the people who want to take credit for it,” Lavine said.

via International Skeptics Forum https://ift.tt/3BPEh4t