Senator says millions of Texans will pay too much after property tax reduction is surprisingly defeated in House

AUSTIN, Texas — The Texas House squashed a bill that would have lowered the city and county portion of many Texans’ property tax bill.

While that was surprising in and of itself, perhaps even more shocking was the fact that dozens of Republicans helped defeat the legislation.

State Sen. Paul Bettencourt, R-District 7, authored Senate Bill 10. He said on Inside Texas Politics he was blindsided by the move, which he says boils down to House politics to some degree.

“When you have a bill that will cut taxes in 52 counties and 57 cities across the state, you have to be surprised that, without notice, 27 Republicans vote with 44 Democrats and the conference committee report is literally turned down in the House,” the Republican told us.

SB 10 would have limited how much more cities and