Republican-led states are racing to cut or cap property taxes ahead of the November elections, as homeowners squeezed by years of rising home values push for relief.
North Carolina, Wyoming, Florida and Oklahoma all have some form of property-tax limit or rollback on this fall’s ballot, following bills passed in more than 10 states since early last year, including Iowa and Georgia, according to a Wall Street Journal report published Wednesday.
Tax Burden Climbs
The push comes even as the tax burden has kept climbing nationally. Property taxes on single-family homes rose 3.7% to $396.8 billion in 2025, with the average bill hitting $4,427, even as average home values slipped 1.7%. Illinois, New Jersey and Connecticut carried the highest effective rates, while New Jersey’s average bill of $10,499 was nearly 10 times West Virginia’s $1,081, the nation’s lowest.
The combination of rising tax bills and softer home values has added fuel to a broader anti-property-tax movement, one that found an unlikely amplifier in Tesla Inc.‘s (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO Elon Musk, who called property tax a “de facto lease from the government” in response to a viral post.
"Property taxes are very visible," John Diamond, director of the Center for Tax and Budget Policy at Rice University, told The Wall Street Journal. "A lot of people have to write that check every year in order to pay their taxes or when they go in to fill out their mortgage documents. Unlike sales tax, where you buy stuff and you don’t really know how much you’ve paid."
Wyoming Leads Rollback
Wyoming’s Republican-led legislature and governor last year enacted a 25% property-tax exemption on the first $1 million of a primary home’s fair-market value. Home values in the state have climbed 52% since 2019, according to Zillow, keeping bills elevated despite the cut.
A ballot measure this November would let voters exempt 50% of their home values from property taxes. The push began with a petition from Brent Bien, a Republican running for governor in the state’s Aug. 18 primary.
“We’re a blue-collar retirement state with roughly 42% of the people living on fixed income,” Bien said. “Property taxes are unsustainable for a lot of folks.”
Other States Follow
Oklahoma’s ballot measure would cap annual property assessment growth at 1.75%. North Carolina voters will weigh a constitutional amendment requiring similar limits, while a Florida measure targeting steep cuts has drawn scrutiny after a University of North Florida poll found support fell from 61% to 45% when tied to a possible $12 billion municipal shortfall.
In Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott (R) signed a $10 billion property-tax-relief package last year and has proposed capping local government spending growth at 3.5% annually. “Stop the spending that leads to property tax increases to begin with,” Abbott said at a February rally.
Local Budgets Squeezed
Property taxes made up 29% of total U.S. state and local tax collections in 2023, the largest single revenue source, according to the Tax Foundation. Wyoming’s community colleges have already lost $14 million to property-tax cuts in the past year, said Erin Taylor, executive director of the Wyoming Association of Community College Trustees.
The Laramie County Fire Authority’s budget was slashed by more than a third, or about $800,000, said fire chief Jason Caughey, who warned of “delayed response times” and fewer firefighters ahead.
Not every city is moving the same direction, however — New York, under Mayor Zohran Mamdani, is pushing in the opposite direction with a new luxury-property surcharge currently tied up in court.
Photo courtesy: Shutterstock
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