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Texas homeowners are getting a tax break. What about renters?

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Texas homeowners are getting a tax break. What about renters?


Texas homeowners had cause to celebrate last week when the state Senate unanimously passed a bill to raise the school property tax homestead exemption from $100,000 to $140,000.

Senior homeowners should have cheered the loudest because their homestead exemption will grow to $150,000 if the House concurs and voters pass the resulting constitutional amendment. The increased exemption would provide relief to homeowners who have endured some of the steepest property tax spikes in the country.

The structure of the relief, a fixed-dollar exemption, is the most fair approach. All homeowners benefit, but the more modest the property, the more generous the proportional tax break. For example, a 70-year-old living in a $150,000 home she owns would owe no tax for school maintenance and operation — the value of the exemption equals the market value of her property. A 70-year-old who owns and lives in a $1 million residential property would still pay school M&O tax on $850,000 of its value.

Lawmakers have more work to do, though. The homestead exemption only helps homeowners; renters also need relief. Tenants pay property taxes indirectly because landlords factor the cost of taxes into the rents they charge. In written testimony to lawmakers, the Texas Apartment Association reported that property taxes are “among the single largest expenses for rental housing owners in Texas.”

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Renters didn’t benefit from the last round of property tax cuts in 2023, even though more than one-third of Texas households rent their homes. In most big cities, the proportion is higher. Fewer than half of all Dallas, Austin and Houston residents live in homes they own. These Texans may want to purchase homes, but the steep rise in rent costs and house prices during the pandemic, along with low inventories, put ownership out of reach.

Apartment rent increases have leveled off, but half of all Texas tenants still spent at least one-third of their income on rent and utilities in 2023. And while single-family house prices are stabilizing, higher interest rates continue to stymie renters hoping to buy a home.

During the 2023 Legislature, some lawmakers proposed allowing tenants to claim a state tax refund equal to a percentage of their annual rent. Also that year, Sen. Royce West, D-Dallas, suggested cutting the state sales tax rate from 6.25 cents to 5.75 cents per $1 spent — a way to distribute the state’s record budget surplus among a larger pool of Texans than just homeowners. That idea had the benefit of being easy to understand and administer.

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State lawmakers should revisit and debate this proposal and others that would provide renter relief. We’d hate to see Texas become a state in which residents are locked into their current housing situation because of a skewed tax break. Tenants deserve relief on the taxes they pay indirectly through rent so they can save enough to become homeowners and pay their property taxes directly.

We welcome your thoughts in a letter to the editor. See the guidelines and submit your letter here. If you have problems with the form, you can submit via email at letters@dallasnews.com



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Texas sues Netflix for allegedly spying on kids, addicting users

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Texas sues Netflix for allegedly spying on kids, addicting users


Netflix was sued Monday (May 11) by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who accused the streaming company of spying on children and other consumers by collecting their data without consent, and designing its platform to be addictive. Ram Nabong reports.



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Texas sues Netflix, alleges platform spied on kids and collected data

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Texas sues Netflix, alleges platform spied on kids and collected data


The state of Texas announced a lawsuit against streaming giant Netflix on Monday, accusing the company of spying on children and other consumers by collecting their data without consent and designing the platform to be addictive.

Texas claims that Netflix has falsely represented to consumers that it didn’t collect or share user data while it actually tracked and sold viewers’ habits and preferences to commercial data brokers and advertising technology companies.

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The lawsuit, filed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, claims that “Netflix’s endgame is simple and lucrative: get children and families glued to the screen, harvest their data while they are stuck there, and then monetize the data for a handsome profit.”

The state of Texas announced a lawsuit against streaming giant Netflix on Monday. (Nikos Pekiaridis/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

“When you watch Netflix, Netflix watched you,” Texas added in the lawsuit.

NETFLIX CO-FOUNDER REED HASTINGS TO STEP DOWN, DEPARTURE IS ‘SPOOKING INVESTORS’

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The complaint quotes comments made by former CEO Reed Hastings who said in 2020, while he was still leading the streaming company, that “we don’t collect anything,” amid questions over Big Tech companies’ data collection practices.

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Netflix was also accused of quietly using “dark patterns” to keep users watching on its platform, such as an autoplay feature that starts a new show after a different show ends.

NETFLIX RAISES SUBSCRIPTION PRICES ACROSS ALL PLANS

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed the lawsuit. (Cheney Orr/Reuters)

Paxton said in a press release that Netflix “has built a surveillance program designed to illegally collect and profit from Texans’ personal data without their consent, and my office will do everything in our power to stop it.”

The attorney general said he’s charging Netflix under the state’s Deceptive Trade Practices Act and seeks to require Netflix to stop the unlawful collection and disclosure of user data, require Netflix to disable autoplay by default on kid’s profiles, and to secure injunctive relief and civil penalties.

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FOX Business reached out to Netflix for comment.

Reuters contributed to this report.



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6 people found dead inside a boxcar in Texas, officials say | CNN

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6 people found dead inside a boxcar in Texas, officials say | CNN


Six people were found dead inside a cargo train boxcar in a Texas city along the southern border on Sunday, officials said.

The bodies were found in a Union Pacific train at a rail yard in Laredo, around 160 miles south of San Antonio, just after 3:30 p.m. local time, said Jose Espinoza, a public information officer with the Laredo Police Department.

The circumstances of their deaths are unknown, said Laredo police spokesperson Joe Baeza, according to CNN affiliate KGNS, and an investigation is underway.

Union Pacific operates across the border and is the only railroad that services all access points into Mexico, according to the freight company’s website.

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Temperatures on Sunday afternoon in Laredo were in the low-mid 90s, though it’s unclear whether heat was a factor.

Union Pacific said it was saddened by the incident and is working closely with law enforcement to investigate.

Laredo police said they received a call around 3 p.m. from an employee at the Union Pacific rail yard, KGNS reported. The bodies were discovered during a routine rail car inspection, police said. No survivors were found.

CNN has reached out to Laredo police for more information.

“It’s a very early phase of the investigation. There’s not a lot to reveal right now,” Baeza said, KGNS reported.

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The immigration status and ages of the deceased are not yet known, Espinoza said.

US Customs and Border Protection referred CNN to the Laredo Police Department, saying “The incident remains under investigation by Laredo Police Department and Homeland Security Investigation and Texas Rangers.”

CNN has reached out to the Department of Homeland Security, HSI and the Texas Department of Public Safety.

“It’s a very unfortunate event,” Espinoza told CNN. “It was too many lives that were lost.”

This story has been updated with additional information.

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