Texas voters will decide next year whether homeowners will get a trim in their property tax bills after lawmakers rammed a proposed constitutional amendment through both chambers shortly after it was first proposed Monday evening.

The measure would raise the state’s homestead exemption from $25,000 to $40,000 for school district property taxes, netting the average homeowner about $176 in savings on their annual property tax bill, according to Houston Republican Sen. Paul Bettencourt, the proposal’s author.

The new proposal — which would cost the state more than $600 million annually if voters approve it at the May ballot box — emerged seemingly out of nowhere hours before the end of the third special legislative session. With the two chambers unable to reach an agreement on the Senate’s priority bill to reduce property tax rates, Texas lawmakers started from scratch on new legislation intended to lower homeowners’ property tax bills through an expansion of school district homestead exemptions.

Senate lawmakers fast-tracked the proposal immediately after it was filed Monday evening. In the span of less than an hour, the bill sailed through a key committee and wound up back on the Senate floor, where it passed unanimously — all before the text of the legislation became publicly available and without an opportunity for public comment.

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