Can Texas voters petition for an election to adopt a local homestead property tax exemption?

Plain-English summary

A state senator asked the Attorney General whether subsection (n) of Tax Code section 11.13 required a taxing unit's governing body to call an election if at least 20 percent of the qualified voters who voted in the unit's last election signed a petition asking for one. The exemption in question is the optional local-option homestead exemption, a percentage break a taxing unit may grant on a residence homestead's appraised value. The Attorney General answered that there was no provision for adopting that exemption by election at all. A taxing unit's governing body adopts it; voters do not, and a petition does not force an election.

The answer required untangling a decade of amendments. When subsection (n) was added in 1983, it let a taxing unit's governing body adopt the exemption, with no election and no petition mechanism. In 1991, the same bill that created the county education district (CED) school finance scheme bolted CED-specific language onto subsection (n). That language let a CED's voters adopt the exemption at an election held under a new Education Code provision, section 20.946, and capped the voter-set percentage at 20 percent. But the 1991 amendment also inserted the words "other than a county education district" into the older part of the subsection, so for ordinary taxing units the rule was unchanged: the governing body adopted the exemption.

Then in 1993 the legislature abolished CEDs and swept most CED references out of the statute books, including the repeal of Education Code section 20.946, the very provision that had supplied the election machinery. Through a drafting slip, the last two sentences of subsection (n) (the ones about adoption "by the voters" and the 20 percent cap) were not deleted and still appeared as current law in the 1993 session laws and Vernon's 1994 supplement. The senator's question, in effect, was whether those orphaned sentences now gave ordinary taxing units' voters a petition-and-election route. The office said no. Nothing in the chain of amendments or their legislative history suggested those sentences, written for the now-abolished CEDs, had migrated to cover other taxing units. There had never been, and was not then, any provision letting a taxing unit other than a CED adopt the subsection (n) homestead exemption by election.

Currency note

This opinion was issued in 1994. Subsequent statutory amendments, court decisions, or later AG opinions may have changed the analysis. Treat this page as historical context, not current legal advice. Verify current law before relying on any specific rule, deadline, or remedy mentioned here.

Tax Code section 11.13 has been amended many times since 1994, and the orphaned CED sentences this opinion described were eventually cleaned up. The county education district scheme is long gone. Read this page for how the office resolved the 1994 statutory tangle, and check the current text of section 11.13 before relying on any specific procedure for adopting a local-option homestead exemption today.

What the opinion meant for those who asked

For taxing units (cities, counties, school districts, and their officials): The opinion concluded that the optional section 11.13(n) homestead exemption was adopted by the governing body's own action. There was no election or voter-petition step for a taxing unit other than a county education district, so the leftover statutory sentences about voter adoption did not obligate a governing body to put the exemption on a ballot.

For voters and homeowners: The opinion concluded there was no mechanism for voters to force the adoption of this exemption by petition and election in an ordinary taxing unit. Whether a homeowner got the exemption depended on the governing body's decision, not a ballot measure.

For the legislature: The opinion identified a loose end left by the 1993 repeal of the CED scheme, namely two sentences that survived the deletion of the provision they depended on, and read them as inoperative rather than as a new grant of election authority.

Common questions

Could voters petition to put a local homestead exemption to an election?
No. The Attorney General concluded there was no provision for adopting the section 11.13(n) exemption by public election in a taxing unit, so a voter petition did not require the governing body to call one.

Then who decides whether the exemption applies?
The taxing unit's governing body adopts the exemption by its own action.

Why did the statute seem to mention a voter election?
Because two sentences added in 1991 for county education districts survived the 1993 repeal of the CED scheme. They referred to adoption "by the voters" and a 20 percent cap, but the election provision they relied on (Education Code section 20.946) had been repealed, and the office concluded the leftover sentences never applied to ordinary taxing units.

What was a county education district?
A unit created by a 1991 school finance law to spread property tax revenue among school districts. The legislature abolished CEDs in 1993, which is why the surviving references in the homestead-exemption statute no longer had any operative effect.

Background and statutory framework

Tax Code section 11.13 sets out the homestead exemptions from property taxation. Subsection (n), added by Acts 1983, 68th Leg., ch. 851, § 6, at 4822, created an additional local-option exemption equal to a percentage of a residence homestead's appraised value, adopted by the governing body of a taxing unit, with a floor of $5,000 when the percentage produced a smaller figure. As first enacted it contained no election or petition provision.

The 1991 school finance bill (Acts 1991, 72d Leg., ch. 20, § 19, at 413) amended subsection (n) in tandem with creating county education districts. It inserted "other than a county education district" after "taxing unit" in the older portion, deleted obsolete percentage limits tied to the years 1982 and after, and appended new language letting a CED's voters adopt the exemption at an election held under Education Code section 20.946 (added by the same bill), capped at 20 percent. For taxing units other than CEDs, the governing body still adopted the exemption.

In 1993 the legislature abolished CEDs (Acts 1993, 73d Leg., ch. 347, § 4.14, at 1481, 1528), deleted most CED references including the CED sentence in subsection (n), and repealed Education Code section 20.946 (id. § 4.13, at 1528). The last two sentences of subsection (n), added in 1991 as part of the CED package, were not deleted and continued to appear as current law in the 1993 session laws and Vernon's 1994 supplement. The office concluded those orphaned sentences did not provide an election mechanism for taxing units other than CEDs, finding nothing in the amendment history to suggest the CED-specific language had come to govern ordinary taxing units. Its bottom line: there had never been and was not then any provision authorizing a taxing unit other than the abolished CEDs to adopt the subsection (n) homestead exemption by election.

Citations

Statutory provisions discussed:

• Tax Code § 11.13 (residence homestead exemptions); § 11.13(n) (optional local-option percentage exemption)
• Educ. Code § 20.946 (CED homestead-exemption election; repealed in 1993)
• Acts 1983, 68th Leg., ch. 851, § 6, at 4822 (original subsection (n))
• Acts 1991, 72d Leg., ch. 20, § 19, at 413 (CED amendments to subsection (n))
• Acts 1993, 73d Leg., ch. 347, §§ 4.13, 4.14, at 1481, 1527-28 (abolition of CEDs; repeal of § 20.946)

Source

• Landing page: https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/opinions/dan-morales/dm-0312
• Original PDF: https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/sites/default/files/opinion-files/opinion/1994/dm0312.pdf

Original opinion text

Best-effort transcription from a scanned PDF. Minor errors may remain — the linked PDF is authoritative.

Office of the Attorney General
State of Texas

DAN MORALES
ATTORNEY GENERAL

December 12, 1994

Honorable Bill Ratliff
Chair
Education Committee
Texas State Senate
P.O. Box 12068
Austin, Texas 78711

Opinion No. DM-312

Re: Whether a homestead exemption under section 11.13(n) of the Tax Code may be adopted by public election pursuant to voter petition in the taxing unit (RQ-693)

Dear Representative Ratliff:

You ask whether "subsection (n) of section 11.13 of the Texas [Tax] Code require[s] that a governing body of a taxing unit call an election upon the petition of at least 20 percent of the qualified voters who voted in the taxing unit's last election." Section 11.13 provides for various homestead exemptions from property taxation.

Subsection (n) as first added in 1983 provided for an additional homestead exemption under section 11.13. The exemption was to be adopted by the governing body of a taxing unit. There was no provision for a public election on the issue or for a petition therefor. Subsection (n), as added in 1983, read in pertinent part as follows:

In addition to any other exemptions provided by the section, an individual is entitled to an exemption from taxation by a taxing unit of a percentage of the appraised value of his residence homestead if the exemption is adopted by the governing body of the taxing unit. If the percentage set by the taxing unit produces an exemption in a tax year of less than $5,000 when applied to a particular residence homestead, the individual is entitled to an exemption of $5,000 of the appraised value.

Acts 1983, 68th Leg., ch. 851, § 6, at 4822. The subsection also limited the percentage of appraised value of homesteads that could be exempted by the governing body of a taxing unit.

In a 1991 amendment, in the same bill that created the county education district ("CED") scheme of school finance, the legislature added provisions under subsection (n) of Tax Code section 11.13 for homestead exemptions with regard to CEDs specifically. The amendment added the language "other than a county education district" after "taxing unit" in the first sentence of the pre-existing portion of section 11.13(n), quoted above, deleted obsolete limitations on the percentage of exemption that could be allowed in the years 1982 and after, and also added the following language to the end of the subsection:

In addition to any other exemptions provided by this section, an individual is entitled to an exemption from taxation by a county education district of a percentage of the appraised value of his residence homestead if the exemption is adopted by the voters of the district at an election held in the district for that purpose under Section 20.946, Education Code. If the percentage set by voters produces an exemption in a tax year of less than $5,000 when applied to a particular residence homestead, the individual is entitled to an exemption of $5,000 of the appraised value. The percentage adopted by the voters may not exceed 20 percent.

Acts 1991, 72d Leg., ch. 20, § 19, at 413 (Vernon's Sess. Law Serv.)

Thus, as amended in 1991, subsection (n) of section 11.13 provided for the adoption of CED homestead exemptions by public election. The referenced section 20.946 of the Education Code, added in the same 1991 bill amending subsection (n), provided for CEDs' ordering an election on the adoption of such exemption, and in the event that the exemption was not adopted at such election, for holding later elections on that issue upon the receipt of petitions signed by the required number of voters. Id. § 2, at 407. In our opinion, however, with respect to taxing units "other than a county education district," there was still no provision for a homestead exemption under the subsection being effected by an election. Such exemptions were still to be "adopted by the governing body."

In 1993, the legislature abolished CEDs. Acts 1993, 73d Leg., ch. 347, § 4.14, Vernon's Sess. Law Serv. 1481, 1528. The same bill generally deleted references in state law to CEDs, including the above-quoted sentence added to subsection (n) of Tax Code section 11.13 in 1991, and reading: "In addition to any other exemptions provided by this section, an individual is entitled to an exemption from taxation by a county education district . . . if the exemption is adopted by the voters of the district." Id. at 1527. The bill also deleted Education Code section 20.946, discussed above, providing for CEDs' adoption of the homestead exemption by election. Id. § 4.13, at 1528. However, the last two sentences of subsection (n), which had been added in the 1991 amendment, although they had been part of the 1991 addition pertaining to CEDs, were not deleted, and appear in both the 1993 session laws and Vernon's 1994 supplement as current law.

Although the last two sentences of subsection (n) remain on the books, we do not think they operate to provide for an election on a homestead exemption under the subsection for taxing units other than CEDs. We find nothing in the series of amendments outlined above or in their legislative history, which indicates that the last two sentences of subsection (n), adopted to apply to the now abolished CEDs, have come to apply to the adoption of homestead exemptions by other taxing units. In our opinion, there has never been and is not now any provision authorizing taxing units other than the now abolished CEDs to have an election on the adoption of the subsection (n) homestead exemption.

SUMMARY

There is no provision for the adoption of homestead exemptions under section 11.13(n), Tax Code, by public election in a taxing unit. Said exemptions are adopted by action of the taxing unit's governing body.

DAN MORALES
Attorney General of Texas

JORGE VEGA
First Assistant Attorney General

DREW T. DURHAM
Deputy Attorney General for Criminal Justice

JAVIER AGUILAR
Special Assistant Attorney General

RENEA HICKS
State Solicitor

SARAH J. SHIRLEY
Chair, Opinion Committee

Prepared by William M. Walker
Assistant Attorney General