BROWNSVILLE, Texas - Cameron County voters approved 12 of 14 constitutional amendments and rejected two proposed initiatives.
One such amendment, Proposition Number 4, received 16,645 votes in favor and 3,092 against, according to unofficial results issued by the county election department.
The amendment called for modifying certain provisions of the Texas Constitution related to property taxes. One such provision called for increasing the mandatory home exemption for school district property taxation to $100,000, or $60,000 more over the previous exemption of $40,000.
In other words, a home valued at $250,000 will now be taxed at $150,000 but only for school property tax purposes.
Homeowners, however, will continue paying taxes to the other six entities as they normally do with or without the over 65 exemptions.
One striking aspect of the Proposition Number 4 is that taxpayers already received the $100,000 homestead exemption on the tax statement from the Cameron County Tax Office.
That happened even before the election took place because the Texas Legislature approved the measure during a special second session.
The approval was temporary pending the results of the Nov. 7 election.
Some taxpayers who were not aware of the action expressed surprise after seeing their property tax reduction by hundreds, if not thousands of dollars.
Antonio “Tony” Yzaguirre Jr., the county’s tax assessor collector, said the 254 tax offices in Texas sent out the statements in the second week of October.
“The Legislature gave us two options,” he said. “One was to include the new exemption with the statements or wait until the election.”
He said most tax assessor collectors went for the first option for the benefit of the taxpayers.
If voters would have rejected the homestead exemption increase, Yzaguirre’s office would have to send taxpayers a new bill to recuperate the money.
“I don’t think people would be happy,” he said. “Based on our experience, we knew the voters would go for the increase.”
But not everybody votes for increasing the homestead exemption.
Harlingen resident John Guevara was one of the 3,092 people who voted against the increase.
“I voted no,” he said. “I just believe everybody should pay their share of taxes.”
Statewide, more than 420,000 people voted against and more than two million voted for the homestead exemption, according to reports.
