Senator Eckhardt votes for $140,0000 Homestead Exemption while Urging Accountability from State to Taxpayers

For Immediate Release: Contact:
February 13, 2025 Jeffrey Clemmons
214-244-6058
Press Release
Senator Eckhardt votes for $140,0000 Homestead Exemption while Urging
Accountability from State to Taxpayers
AUSTIN – Today, Senator Eckhardt joined her colleagues in the Texas Senate to pass SB4, a
permanent $140,000 homestead exemption, providing relief to the nearly 1.6M Texas homeowners
who are defined as “cost-burdened” (spending over 30% of their income on housing costs
inclusive of mortgages, utilities, and property taxes).
Appropriately set, flat dollar homestead exemptions help the homeowners who need it the most
by shifting the overall tax burden onto higher value homeowners, non-homestead homeowners
and commercial property owners. Permanently increasing the burden on all the other property
tax payers runs the risk of creating more inequity. For instance, small business owners and the
50% of renters who are cost burdened will sag under the shifting burden.
Senator Sarah Eckhardt released the following statement:
“Homestead Exemptions are a good tool, but they are not the most powerful ones we have. The
best, most meaningful, and long-lasting property tax relief the Legislature could provide is
for the state to fully fund state obligations. Texas must fully fund public education, increasing
the basic allotment and indexing it to inflation. Texas should expand Medicaid so more Texans can
receive the care they need and hospital districts can stop hurting. When the state pays its fair
share, local taxpayers, whether homeowners or not, won’t be left to pick up our slack.”
Sarah Eckhardt is the second-term Democratic State Senator representing District 14, comprising
Austin and surrounding areas. She serves on the Administration, Border Security, Nominations,
and Veterans Affairs committees in the 89th Legislative Session, and has previously served on the
Water, Agriculture, & Rural Affairs and Local Government committees. A proud UT Law and Public
Affairs alum, Senator Eckhardt was the first woman to serve as Travis County Judge from
2014-2020.