February 13, 2025
One of several dishonest ads targeting Steve Toth takes aim at his conservative record on property tax relief. The ads are very deceptive, focusing on just one bill. The Texas Legislature took up many bills relating to property tax relief in the 89th session.
The claim: Steve Toth voted NO on SB10 (TX 89th) and called Governor Abbott’s Property Tax Relief Plan “bull crap”.
The reality: Steve Toth voted to support several property tax relief measures in the 89th Legislative Session.
Toth supported SJR 18, which aimed to prevent the legislature from ever enacting a capital gains tax. The resolution was approved by Texas voters on Nov. 4, 2025.
Toth also voted for SB4, which raised the homestead exemption from $100,000 to $140,000. Toth was a vocal advocate for more aggressive tax cuts, but he ultimately co-authored and voted for the compromise relief package in SB4.
Toth also voted for HB9, which was signed into law by Governor Abbott on June 12, 2025. HB9 provided significant tax relief for small businesses by increasing the exemption from $2500 to $125,000. The law took effect on Jan. 1, 2025, following voter approval of HJR 1 in the November 2025 election.
Toth voted in favor of SB 23. This bill was part of a broader property tax relief package and specifically targeted relief for seniors and homeowners with disabilities. The bill increased the exemption for seniors and the disabled from $10,000 to $60,000. When combined with the general homestead exemption, this legislation provided qualified homeowners with $200,000 in residence homestead exemptions.
As for SB 10, the bill that Dan Crenshaw and his supporters have based their criticism on, several conservative members of the Texas House voted against it after their amendments to the bill were stripped in the conference committee. Some reasons provided in the record by conservative members for not supporting the bill included: MUD Districts were not constrained by this bill, those limitations previously in the bill would have helped rural homeowners tremendously; the bill did not apply to all counties in Texas and all Texans deserve property tax relief; the bill only provided relief to 5% of Texans, not all Texans; and the bill did not address abuse of taxpayer dollars or address the issue of rising home valuations. I don’t know about you guys, but this sounds like a bad bill. I also don’t think this was Governor Abbott’s Property Tax Relief Bill, at least I don’t recall the Governor campaigning on cutting property taxes for just 5% of Texans.
Some of the mailers and texts going to voters in Texas Congressional District 2 are from Dan Crenshaw’s campaign, while others are from Fight to Win America, Inc., a Super PAC. The PAC is funded by a Houston-area hedge-fund millionaire, William O. Perkins III, and by billionaire Jon Cotton of Michigan, who is the CEO of ApexHealth and former COO of Meridian Health Plans (a provider of Medicare Advantage Plans). The Cotton family owned Meridian Health Plans, and their wealth grew exponentially as Obamacare rolled out. The treasurer of Fight to Win America is listed as Charles Gantt, who operates out of Massachusetts and has been listed as Treasurer of the Texans for Opportunity and Prosperity PAC, which supported two of the most liberal members of the Texas House, Andrew Murr and Morgan Meyer. Both Meyer and Murr were among the House Managers who led the impeachment against AG Ken Paxton.
The Super PAC has no idea what it is talking about and appears to have a very shallow understanding of the Texas Legislature, or perhaps they are just shady. Who knows why they support Dan Crenshaw, but their website has nothing on it but an ad for Dan Crenshaw.
I suspect that Dan Crenshaw knows better, but he thinks the voters won’t know any better than to believe his lies. This is just one misrepresentation of Steve Toth’s conservative record. He has also taken aim at Steve Toth for NO votes on other pieces of legislation. I will address those in future posts, but for now, just know that the reality is similar to what I described above. The lies are so blatant and persistent that State Representative Valoree Swanson, who lives in the district, decided she could no longer stand by and watch her colleague smeared in this fashion. She normally would not endorse in a primary, but has endorsed Steve Toth.
Take my advice and delete the Crenshaw texts and tear up those dishonest mailers. Dan Crenshaw cannot even campaign honestly. Oh, and speaking of dishonesty, his hired gun was manipulating Wikipedia to alter Steve Toth’s record to help Dan Crenshaw. Dan Crenshaw doesn’t want you to knowthe truth about Steve Toth’s record because Toth’s record is superb.
MadMommaBear Blog 