Texas Senate votes to advance property tax reform bill

The Texas Senate broke a logjam that had paralyzed a piece of priority legislation for weeks, blunting a controversial provision in its property tax reform package Monday and then advancing the bill — without having to deploy a procedural “nuclear option.”

A vote on Senate Bill 2, a top imperative for state leaders, had been expected last week.

But an apparent lack of support stalled the vote in the upper chamber, where the backing of 19 senators is generally required to bring a bill up for debate.

After Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick threatened to blow past decades of tradition and bring the measure to a vote with a simple majority, state Sen. Kel Seliger, a vocal dissenter, relented, allowing the bill onto the floor for debate but insisting he ultimately would not support its passage.

Seliger’s announcement came alongside a reworked bill hitting the floor Monday with a handful of technical changes and one notable concession.

As updated, SB 2 will force cities, counties and other taxing entities to receive voter approval before raising 3.5-percent more property tax revenue than the previous year — rather than the 2.5-percent trigger originally proposed. School districts would still face a 2.5-percent trigger under the version of the bill approved Monday.

Only revenue generated on existing properties, not new construction, would count toward the threshold.