A bill is making its way through the Texas legislature that would cut homeowners some slack: Senate Bill 4 by Sen. Paul Bettencourt, R-Houston, will raise the homestead exemption from $100,000 to $140,000 — saving the average homeowner $500 a year.

The bill was approved unanimously by a Senate committee on February 11, paving the way for consideration by the full Senate.

“By following up on the largest, grandest, hugest property tax reduction in American History, $22.7 Billion to be exact, SB 4 and SJR 2 provide more meaningful reduction to Texas homeowners by raising the Homestead Exemption to $140K," Bettencourt said in an especially bold and florid statement — even to the point of capitalizing the "h" on history and the "b" on billion, and yet simultaneously missing what seems like a golden opportunity to pump up that $140K with three more zeros and making it $140,000 which seems more substantial than $140K.

Bettencourt gave credit to Charles Scoma of the Silver-Haired Legislature, the group of citizens 60-plus years of age elected by their peers, who testified that 80 percent of seniors in Texas have only $36K of disposable income, so $500 makes a big difference.

"We have a moral obligation to keep seniors in their home," Bettencourt said.

Senate Bill 4 works in conjunction with Senate Bill 1, the General Appropriations Act, by Senator Joan Huffman which provides 6.8 pennies of school district tax rate compression. This compression will result in an additional $133.13 in savings for the average homestead property owner.

SB 4, if passed and approved by the voters, will raise the ISD portion of the homestead exemption, meaning the portion that goes for school district taxes. Senate Bill 4 includes a hold-harmless provision, guaranteeing that the state will fully cover any ISD funding shortfalls resulting from the exemption increase. Meaning that taxpayers will foot the bill in some other way?

Once the Senate passes SB4 and SJR 2, they will move onto the House.