The ugly tax battle brewing between baby boomers and millennials
Getty Images; Tyler Le/BI Taylor Scriber, a millennial living in Texas , is trying to join the growing ranks of his generation and buy his first home.
He's been scouring listings with his real estate agent, taking a few tours to see what suits him best, and estimating his potential costs, including property taxes .
The final piece of that homeowning puzzle has been stuck in Scriber's craw lately.
After reading recent headlines about property taxes in the Lone Star state being slashed for older residents and those with disabilities, he started to feel that he may end up shouldering the fiscal burden through his own payments with resulting rate hikes — and costing out worst case scenarios for what the cost of his future home might realistically look like, since so many homes have those abatements.
After all, since Texas has no income tax , sales and property taxes are key in funding municipal services, like schools.
So as revenue from older homeowners dries up and cities continue to face budget shortfalls , he expects his local government to make up for the cuts in other ways — including taxes on his home-to-be.
"You're stuck there, and you're looking at an inevitable property tax increase, because a group of people are voting to opt themselves out," he says.
Almost 40% of homesteads in Texas pay no property taxes for school districts.
That includes about 61% of older and disabled homeowners, up from 44% in 2024.
Scriber's family and friends over the age of 65 all seem sympathetic when he brings up the issue — at first.
They agree that increasingly foisting more of the cost of a functional society onto younger generations could be a problem, but then they start thinking further.
"They just kind of thought about it for a moment, and they were like, 'But I want my property taxes to be lowered,'" he says.
A generational tax battle has begun to envelop the US.
The current beef stretches far beyond timeless "kids these days" and " OK boomer " finger-pointing.
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