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Patrick Breaks Ranks with Abbott on Taxes
that He Wants to End on More Gradual Basis
Capitol Inside
December 9, 2025
Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick appeared to pick a fight with Governor Greg Abbott on Tuesday when he threw his massive muscle behind a proposal that's designed to wean Texas public schools from taxes on homes on a gradual basis instead of wiping them out with a single stroke when lawmakers meet again in 2027.
Patrick endorsed yet another increase in the homestead exemption that reduces the annual sum that Texans pay on their residences as a critical funding source for public education.
“We are on a path now to eliminate school property taxes for every homeowner in Texas in the next few years, no matter their age,” Patrick said at a news conference. “We’ve already done it now for seniors. We are going to expedite this for those 55 now, getting 10 more years of savings. And I believe in the next few sessions, we’re going to be able to eliminate school property taxes with homestead exemptions.”
But Patrick said the governor's push to abolish property taxes for schools in a singular piece of legislation during the next regular session's would send sales taxes on consumer purchases soaring in the Lone Star State.
The Republican lieutenant governor indicated that he hadn't run his own proposal by Abbott before unveiling it to the public today. Patrick also declined to mention why he waited until the day after the filing window for candidate filing for the 2026 primary elections closed. Abbott and Patrick are both facing token opposition in the GOP primary election in March in bids for re-election to their current posts. Both will expect to run as favorites next fall in fights with nominees for the Democrats.
But Patrick's plan - despite an approach that would phase out property taxes for schools over the course of several bienniums - has a substantial hole without a proposed source of replacement revenues for the state to tap to compensate public schools for funding that would dry up with the unpopular levies' eventual elimination.
Abbott has faced epic criticism for proposing to do away with school taxes overnight without a mechanism for replacing the money that public schools would lose without taxes on property. The governor contends that the state will be able to tap a never-ending budget surplus to foot the bill for of the abolishment of school taxes. That could be as high as $40 billion in every two-year state spending cycle.
But Patrick - while warning of higher consumption taxes if property taxes on schools were abolished in a single swoop like the governor wants to see - sees future prosperity as the ticket to their gradual elimination just the same.
“The schools are getting paid because we’re writing the check on your behalf from the money we have at the state that comes in through our growing economy to pay your school property taxes,” Patrick explained. “So the schools aren’t losing out.”
But the state would be required to compensate the schools for revenues that would disappear if property taxes are slashed again and outlawed here at some point like Abbott wants to see in the plan that he's pitched as his most pressing priority on the campaign trail in the past few months. But the proposal's dependence on a strong economy without a backup plan for times of famine that are inevitable has given the impression that the program is simply a publicity stunt for a potential White House bid.
While the public schools would find the Patrick counter-proposal to be less of a danger than the Abbott plan, the lieutenant governor's program may have a credibility problem as well without the trade off that such a dramatic change in policy would require or a Plan B for an economic downturn.
But Patrick's opposition to Abbott's approach should have come as no surprise in light of the bad reviews that a pair of the lieutenant governor's top lieutenants in the Texas Senate gave the governor's proposal. Patrick has had his way on property tax relief measures that the Legislature has adopted in recent years. Abbott knows that his program has no chance in the Senate without Patrick on board.
While Patrick warned of spiking sales taxes under the Abbott proposal, he did not say whether consumption levies would rise to record heights on a gradual basis if he prevails with the longer-term approach. But the lieutenant governor had a catchy name for his proposal in a post tonight on X.
Today, I launched "Operation Double Nickel," a plan to accelerate school property tax cuts, reduce school property taxes, and freeze appraised values for more than 3.3 million homeowners, forever, by taking the current over 65 freeze on taxable value down to homeowners 55 and over, hence the “double nickel," Patrick wrote.
more to come ...
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