What you need to know
On July 25, League City City Council voted in favor of increasing the homestead exemption for those age 65 and older from $45,000 to $75,000. The original proposal was to increase it to $60,000, but council members agreed to raise it higher in hopes Galveston County officials would follow suit on the county’s homestead exemption.
A homestead exemption withholds value from a resident’s primary residence when calculating property tax bills. For League City, this means $75,000 will be exempted from seniors’ homestead values when their property tax bills are calculated.
Zooming in
Council Member John Bowen said he supports increasing the exemption but also wants a matching cut from the proposed fiscal year 2023-24 budget so the burden isn’t shifted to younger residents.
If the city were to increase the exemption for seniors but not reduce the budget by the amount the exemption will reduce the city’s revenue, that revenue would have to come from someone else, such as other residents.
City Manager John Baumgartner said a $75,000 homestead exemption for seniors would reduce revenue for the city’s incoming budget by $400,000-$500,000.
What they’re saying
Council Member Chad Tressler supported reducing the homestead exemption but said it was “largely pandering.”
Seniors already have their property tax bills frozen. The homestead reduction for seniors would help those new to the city and those who move around often, not the residents who have lived in the city 30 years and have established roots in the same home, Tressler said.
“This isn’t helping them,” he said. “This is helping folks who are moving—helping new folks.”
Mayor Nick Long disagreed. The $400,000-$500,000 the relatively small population of seniors would save is not insignificant, he said.
