Homeowners over 65 or those with a disability in Austin may not see an increase in their city property tax bill next year.
The Austin City Council will vote Thursday on an ordinance that would remove $154,000 of a home’s appraised value from the city’s taxable property calculations for homeowners over 65 or with a disability, up from the current $124,000 exemption.
Under this change, the city property tax bill of the average homestead receiving the senior/disabled property tax exemption would be around the same next year as it is this year, rather than seeing an increase under the current $124,000 exemption, according to a May 15 memo from city budget and performance officer Kerri Lang to the mayor and City Council.
“Senior and disabled homeowners deduct this amount from the assessed value of their property, after first applying the City’s 20% general homestead exemption, to arrive at their net taxable property value for a given year,” Lang’s memo states. “This taxable value is then multiplied by the City’s adopted tax rate to determine the homeowner’s annual property tax bill.”
For non-senior homeowners, this change would result in an annual increase of $2.50 per $100,000 of taxable value, according to Lang’s memo.
The exemption increase would apply to the tax year that began on Jan. 1, according to the draft ordinance.
As long as it is passed at Thursday’s meeting, before the city calculates the official voter-approval tax rate for fiscal year 2025, the change will have no impact on the city’s total projected property tax revenue, according to Lang’s memo.
Revenue from property taxes accounts for a large chunk of the city’s general fund, which pays for city services like police, fire and parks.
The ordinance was brought forward by Austin Mayor Kirk Watson, who in his online newsletter wrote about how this fits into the bigger picture of ways the city of Austin is addressing affordability, the cornerstone of his 2024 reelection campaign.
“Controlling how much the City charges you in taxes and fees is another area where we can make a difference,” Watson wrote in his newsletter, in which he also touched on things like the HOME initiative and Austin becoming the first city to pass a 100% city property tax exemption for eligible child care facilities.
Council Member Ryan Alter proposed an amendment on Wednesday morning that would direct city staff to annually post this item for consideration and approval by the City Council.
“While Council would retain flexibility to change the specific amount exempted, this amendment would set the senior & disabled tax exemption at a level that holds those households harmless based on the prior year’s change in median home price and property tax rate (just as we are doing this year),” Alter said in a post to the City Council message board.
Last year, the City Council raised the exemption from $113,000 to the current $124,000 exemption, according to Lang’s memo.