With new in Texas government, what'll happen to property taxes?

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- Now that the election is over, a pair of property tax reformers are now in charge of the Texas Senate. So what will happen to rising property tax bills and how much will it save you?

The election means Texans will get property tax relief, potentially hundreds of dollars in savings.

Sean Murphy loves the Museum District so much he is the president of the homeowners association. What he does not like are the rising property taxes.

"They are going up about the max they can every year and they are putting a bit of a strain on the longtime residents here," Murphy said.

Unfortunately for Murphy and the rest of Harris COunty, property tax bills are not going down.

"I think you will have a lot of homeowners very unhappy when they open their tax bills because they will average $450 more in one year," Senator-elect Paul Bettencourt said.

Bettencourt's gone from fighting property tax increases to being able to do something about it. He just won a Texas Senate seat, and his goal is to chop hundreds of dollars off your property tax bill.

"Look here's the fundamental problem as values go up, tax rates got to come down, OK? And we need to force tax rates to come down and it's easy to do it's called a rollback tax rate limit," he said.

Bettencourt says along with new Lt. Gov.Dan Patrick, tax relief is on the way. The plan is to cut at least a couple of hundred dollars off the next tax bill and potentially use the state's rainy day fund to further lessen the tax burden on homeowners and businesses.

For Murphy and his neighbors, saving money is a welcome result of the election.

"I think property tax relief for seniors especially would be really important," Murphy said.

Bettencourt says the legislature will take up tax cuts in January.