Hospital District largely silent on giant tax break for seniors

Question: What took just a few seconds and cost most local households about $20 per year? Answer: The homestead exemption passed recently by the Walker County Hospital District, which is almost certainly one of the largest in the state.

In a meeting last August, the hospital district's Board of Managers unanimously adopted a $150,000 homestead exemption for homeowners who are at least 65 years old or disabled. That exemption requires higher taxes for everyone else.

There appears to have been no indication that this was coming, prior to the required agenda posting a few days before that meeting.

Jimmy Williams, publisher of New Waverly Community News and Events, attends hospital district meetings regularly. He told The Huntsvillan, "There was never any discussion of the exemption that I witnessed in an open public meeting. The motion and approval took less than a minute with no discussion."

Likely one of Texas' largest exemptions

This homestead exemption far exceeds that of most hospital districts. To compare, we returned to the same area as in our previous article on the hospital district – basically everything east of Austin – and obtained the homestead exemptions of all forty other hospital districts (whatever their population).

Frequently, these districts had no exemption at all; most others ranged from $5,000 - $30,000. Six-digit exemptions were very rare. Outside of Walker County, they occurred only in Dallas and Houston (Harris County).

The larger homestead exemptions in Dallas and Houston probably reflect all their commercial and industrial property. There, as in other major Texas cities, homestead exemptions tend to be large across the board – nearly identical for the city, the county, and the hospital district.

In contrast, smaller counties like Walker have much less taxable commercial and industrial property, so homestead exemptions are usually small (except for the schools, which are set statewide). As a result, the Walker County Hospital District's exemption is almost surely one of the largest in the state.

Significant financial impact

For senior citizens, the savings is substantial. A homeowner receiving the full exemption will save $174.15 on next year's taxes.

These savings are paid for by higher taxes on businesses, renters, and younger homeowners. Figuring this out takes Math^® – but The Huntsvillan was not deterred. The hospital district states that this homestead exemption reduces its 2026 tax base by 9%. This would require a 10% increase in the tax rate to make up the difference – over a penny per $100 valuation.

In the end, the district raised taxes by 0.86 cents per $100 valuation. For a typical $250,000 house, this amounts to $21.50 – two Whataburger combo meals, plus tax.

As a group, the younger individuals on whom this burden falls have less money. Poverty is much higher among younger adults in our county, and especially high among children. It is far lower among senior citizens. At the same time, senior citizens use hospitals more than twice as often as younger people do. The tax break goes to those who can most afford it and use hospitals most frequently.

This analysis considers only current taxes. The bond currently being voted on, if passed, would roughly double the overall tax rate, and thus the costs and benefits of this homestead exemption.

Using the hospital district's estimate of the maximum tax increase generated by this bond, the homestead exemption would save senior citizens an additional $158.10, bringing their total savings to $332.60. To make up for it, the taxes on a non-exempt $250,000 house would rise another $24.40, for a total increase of $43.90. That's enough to let us skip Whataburger entirely and go to some fancy sit-down place.

Board of Managers silent

Many questions raised by these facts are best answered by the elected board members who approved this exemption to begin with.

Accordingly, The Huntsvillan reached out to all five members of the Board of Managers, asking where this idea came from, how it was vetted, whether community feedback was solicited, and why they supported it. Some real head-scratchers.

However, as you may have guessed, all five members declined to answer.* All we know about their thinking comes from that few seconds of their August meeting – their silent vote in support. Whataburger combo meal, we hardly knew ye.

* While four board members did not respond to The Huntsvillan's inquiry, we did have an unsatisfying interchange with board chair Anne Woodard. For transparency, full details can be found on our Facebook page. After our outreach, the hospital district made a Facebook post addressing one of our questions. As it was not attributed to any board member, we did not treat it as a response to our inquiries.

There will be another article on the hospital district, but probably not for a month or more. We have the dots, but they aren't yet connected.