Abbott campaign says governor, Frank pitched school-tax plan at Wichita Falls ag store

Gov. Greg Abbott took his proposal to end school district property taxes for homeowners to a Wichita Falls farm and trailer supply store on Sept. 24, according to his campaign. The campaign said state Rep. James Frank joined him at Cattlemen's Trailer and Ag Supply, where the two talked about Abbott's Affordability Agenda. According to the campaign, that agenda also includes a plan to cut what students pay for summer college courses.

Abbott's campaign proposes to end homeowners' school district property taxes through a constitutional amendment. Voters would have to approve it.

The campaign reported that Wichita Falls was one of three stops that day. In Sherman, Abbott talked about costs with residents at MG's Burger Restaurant, and Rep. Shelley Luther went with him. In Texarkana, he held a roundtable at Miller Bowie Supply with Sen. Bryan Hughes and Chris Spencer, a candidate for House District 1.

A Gainesville homeowner pays school taxes and city taxes on separate lines, and only the school levy is the one the proposal would eliminate. City records show that Gainesville's municipal rate went from $0.573779 per $100 of valuation in fiscal 2025-26 to $0.607207 for 2026-27. When the city raised its rate a year earlier, its budget agenda estimated that the owner of a $180,000 home would pay about $69 more a year in city tax if the home's value stayed the same.

Homeowners already get some relief from school taxes. The Texas Comptroller lists a mandatory $140,000 school district homestead exemption. Homeowners who are 65 or older, or who have disabilities, can get an additional $60,000 exemption if they qualify. The Comptroller says these exemptions reduce a home's taxable value but do not end school property taxes for every owner. To qualify, a person must have an ownership interest in the home and live in it as a principal residence. For this reason, renters do not directly qualify.

Texas voters have voted for school-tax cuts before. According to the Comptroller, voters approved Proposition 4 in November 2023. It raised the homestead exemption from $40,000 to $100,000 and added a school tax-rate cut for 2023-24. The Texas Education Agency says rate compression changes how much of a district's money comes from the state and how much comes from local taxes, but does not reduce the district's total Tier One entitlement. The agency also says Senate Bill 4 gave districts additional state aid to replace the local revenue they lost under the larger exemption.

The campaign began promoting the agenda before the trip. At a Sept. 1 event in Pasadena, it described proposals on property taxes, insurance, health care, housing, electricity and college costs. The savings it cited there were campaign projections, not measured results. According to the campaign, Abbott's April property-tax plan proposed a cap on local spending growth and a two-thirds voter-approval requirement for local tax increases. The campaign said the plan also called for appraisals once every five years and a lower annual cap on appraisal growth that would apply to all property.

District finance records show that school tax rates are not the same in the two North Texas cities Abbott visited. Sherman ISD's combined rate for 2025-26 is higher than the Wichita Falls ISD rate.