The Texas Senate has passed its proposed budget of $308 billion over a week after the Texas House of Representatives passed its proposed budget of $302 billion. 

According to the Texas Tribune, “[Texas] Senators voted 31-0 to spend $141.2 billion in general revenue on major investments in property tax cuts, juvenile justice, mental health, higher education, state parks, historical sites, and pay raises for teachers and state employees.” Additionally, the Senate budget includes other line items such as water projects, border security, electric generating facilities, border security, broadband development, and school security.

Included in the Senate budget proposal is its $16.5 billion property tax relief plan which includes raising the Homestead Exemption Act from $40,000 up to $70,000. The Homestead Exemption Act takes that amount of money off of a home’s taxable value, for homeowners. Additionally, it would give a bonus $30,000 off of a home’s taxable value for 65 and up seniors and people with disabilities. 

Furthermore, The Senate budget includes their proposed school voucher plan which would give families $8,000 for private school tuition costs. It would also give school districts with less than 20,000 students $10,000 for two years to make up for each student that left for private school.

The House of Representatives was the first to pass its budget. According to earlier reporting, the House budget includes “many initiatives and reforms such as state employee pay raise, $[16.5]billion towards property tax relief, border security, restricting funds from universities with DEI policies, and more.”

Now that both the Senate and the House have passed their proposed budgets, there are items they will have to negotiate before they can pass a final budget. The two stark contrasts between each chamber’s budget proposal are property taxes and school vouchers.

The House and Senate differ on how to handle property taxes. The Texas House has passed its property tax relief bill that would give $12 billion to school districts to lower the property tax rate. The House vote for the $12 billion property tax relief package was 139-5.

The controversial piece of it is lowering the appraisal cap from 10% to 5%. That means that homeowners’ taxable value can only increase by 5% regardless of how much the market value rises. The plan would extend not just to homeowners, but businesses as well. Lt. Governor Dan Patrick is against lowering the appraisal cap, while Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan is open to the Senate’s raised homestead exemption. 

The Senate’s 16.5 billion property tax relief plan is still awaiting a hearing in the House. It was passed unanimously in the Senate

Both chambers plan to use $5.3 billion to support tax cuts made in the past. “Like the House, the Senate also wants to pump additional funds into school tax cuts, but it would allocate $5.38 billion for that purpose instead of the House’s proposed $12 billion,” wrote the Tribune.

Secondly, the House budget has an amendment that prohibits the state from funding school vouchers, or anything like it, with public dollars. This came after the Senate passed its parental rights bill, SB 8, which includes school vouchers. 

Now that both chambers have passed budgets, they will have to enter into negotiations and figure out how they plan for the state to spend its money over the next two eyars, especially since the Legislature ends at the end of May.