A Tarrant County lawmaker wants to hand first-time Texas homeowners up to $3,000 off their property tax bill — but only after they've already bought the house, and only if voters sign off on it first. State Rep. Salman Bhojani, a Euless Democrat, filed House Bill 1130 on Thursday, marking his third attempt to get the idea into law.
According to Click2Houston, HB 1130 would allow eligible homeowners to reduce their property tax bill during the first tax year after purchasing their primary residence. To qualify, buyers would need to show they have never previously qualified another property as their primary residence, also known as a residence homestead — the legal term for a home owned and used as someone's main dwelling.
The credit itself comes with a built-in ceiling. It would be capped at up to $3,000 or half of the homeowner's property tax bill, whichever is less, the outlet reports. That means the payout scales with what a buyer actually owes: someone with a $4,000 annual property tax bill could qualify for a $2,000 credit, while someone owing $8,000 could receive the maximum $3,000.
One-Time Credit, Not a Down Payment Check
The bill is explicit about what it isn't. Per the same report, the proposal would not provide money upfront to help someone purchase a house — this is strictly a reduction applied after the fact, through the tax system, rather than cash in hand at closing. The credit would apply only once, during the first tax year following the year the home was purchased, and homeowners would need to apply through their local appraisal district with documentation proving eligibility.
Structurally, the mechanism is also different from how Texas typically delivers tax relief. The state already offers a homestead exemption that reduces the taxable value of a homeowner's primary residence, but HB 1130 would instead function as a direct credit against taxes owed, not an adjustment to the home's assessed value.
Two Earlier Tries Stalled Out
Bhojani isn't new to this fight. He first introduced a similar measure, House Bill 5100, back in 2023; the article notes that bill received a committee hearing but never advanced to a full House vote. He tried again in 2025 with House Bill 2133, pairing it with a proposed constitutional amendment, but that effort also failed to become law.
That 2025 attempt did generate a price tag worth noting. The Texas Legislative Budget Board estimated HB 2133 would carry a roughly $108.7 million negative impact on state general revenue-related funds during the 2026-27 budget period, Click2Houston reported — a figure tied specifically to the earlier bill rather than this new filing. HB 1130 does not yet have an established fiscal estimate of its own.
The Long Road to Jan. 1, 2028
Getting HB 1130 across the finish line isn't just a matter of lawmakers voting yes. The bill requires approval by the Texas Legislature and voters' approval of a corresponding amendment to the Texas Constitution. If both measures pass, the law would take effect Jan. 1, 2028 — meaning any first-time buyer hoping to cash in would have a long wait even in the best-case scenario.
Until then, existing relief stays in place. Texas homeowners will continue to receive the property tax relief already available under current law, including the state's homestead exemption system. Texas voters approved raising the school district homestead exemption from $100,000 to $140,000 in 2025, with a $200,000 exemption carved out for seniors and disabled homeowners, according to Kiplinger. Those exemptions matter at scale — Texas school districts collected about $42 billion in property taxes in 2024, with roughly 45% to 50% of that coming from homesteads, Kiplinger reported.
Part of a Broader Tax Relief Debate
Bhojani's bill lands amid a wider statewide conversation about how to ease the property tax burden. Gov. Greg Abbott has floated eliminating school property taxes for homeowners altogether and capping future property-tax growth, with his campaign estimating that broader push could cut property taxes by up to 50% and save the average homeowner roughly $3,000 a year, per Kiplinger. Rep. Gina Hinojosa, meanwhile, proposed sending a one-time $1,500 payment to every Texas household, an idea estimated to cost $17 billion statewide. Neither of those proposals was law at the time of Kiplinger's reporting, the outlet noted.
Bhojani, an attorney and business owner who represents parts of Tarrant County and previously served on the Euless City Council, has staked his legislative identity in part on this issue across three sessions now. Whether HB 1130 fares any better than its predecessors remains to be seen; the 2023 bill never advanced to a full House vote, and the 2025 effort also failed to become law.
