As more Texas families feel the burden of property taxes, Republican State Rep. Bryan Slaton of Royse City filed new legislation that would incentivize couples to get married and grow their families by offering them a property tax credit.
As filed, House Bill 2889 would offer couples who stay married and have never been divorced a 10 percent property tax credit. The bill also gives families of four or more biological or adopted children a 40 percent property tax credit.
“Supporting Texans means supporting Texas families. Strong families are the backbone and building blocks of society,” said Slaton. “We must support families by making it financially easier for them to have and raise children in a supportive and nurturing way.”
In 2021, the Institute for Family Studies released a research brief revealing that children are more likely to avoid poverty or prison if they grow up in an intact family, rather than in a single-parent or step-family household.
Indeed, an article written by David C. Ribar, a professorial research fellow at the University of Melbourne, Australia, found that a stable marriage tends to enhance the well-being and development of children.
The bill comes after similar policies have been implemented in countries such as Hungary, where women who become mothers under 30 are exempt from a personal income tax in order to reverse the decline of birth rates in the country.
In Poland, under the “Family Welfare Capital” scheme, the state pays families for each child between 3 and 12 years old in order to help foster thriving families in the country.
“With this bill, Texas will start saying to couples: ‘Get married, stay married, and be fruitful and multiply,’” Slaton said.
Concerned citizens can contact their elected officials to ask how they will vote to give tax breaks to families.
