(a) Under the authority of section 1-b(b) of article VIII of the Constitution of Texas, $3,000.00 of the assessed value of residence homesteads, as now defined by law, of persons 65 years of age or older on January 1 of any calendar year shall be exempt from ad valorem taxation by the city for such year. Any person claiming such exemption for his property shall render such property as a homestead upon a form prepared by the city tax assessor-collector for such purpose and submit such proof of age and ownership of the property as he or she may reasonably require. This exemption shall become effective beginning with the 1974 tax year.
(b) Under the authority of section 1-b(b) of article VIII of the Constitution of Texas, $3,000.00 of the assessed value of residence homesteads, as now defined by law, of persons who are disabled for purposes of payment of disability insurance benefits under Federal Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance, or its successor, shall be exempt from ad valorem taxation by the city for such year. Any person claiming such exemption for his property shall render such property as a homestead upon a form prepared by the city tax assessor-collector for such purpose and submit such proof of disability and ownership of the property as he or she may reasonably require. This exemption is recognized to have been effective due to special ordinances from tax years 1983 through 2019, and shall become effective in this its codified form beginning with the 2020 tax year.
(c) An eligible person who is disabled and who aged 65 or older may not receive both a disabled and an aged 65 or older exemption in the same year but may choose either one.
(d) Where any ad valorem tax has heretofore been pledged for payment of any debt, the taxing officers of the city shall have authority to continue to levy and collect the tax against the homestead property affected by this section at the same rate as the tax so pledged until the debt is discharged if cessation of the levy would impair the obligation of the contract by which the debt was created.
(Prior Code, § 7-3; Ord. of 5-8-1973; Ord. No. 033-2020, § 1, 9-22-2020)