The Texas House rejected a conference committee report on Senate Bill 10 on a record vote Wednesday after a prolonged floor debate about the scope and fairness of proposed property-tax changes.

"Conference committee report just takes SB 10 back to its originally filed form," Representative Meyer, sponsor of the conference report, told the chamber as he moved its adoption. He urged colleagues to approve the compromise.

Members who opposed the report said the Senate had stripped away House amendments they considered essential to broad, equitable property-tax relief. Representative Little argued the conference report "only brings within its ambit roughly 5% of the taxing jurisdictions" and singled out the exclusion of many towns, cities and municipal utility districts as a flaw.

Other opponents, including Representative Martinez Fisher and Representative Toth, criticized the conference text for removing safeguards that would have held certain local spending harmless — particularly for police and fire budgets — and for failing to extend relief to smaller jurisdictions and special districts.

Supporters framed the measure as part of a broader package of tax actions the Legislature has taken. Representative Troxclair said the bill "is a step in the right direction, giving voters further control of their own tax rate at the local level," emphasizing the proposal to lower the voter-approved tax-rate threshold from 3.5% to 2.5%.

After the recorded vote the clerk announced 60 ayes and 71 nays; the conference committee report was not adopted.

Floor debate included exchanges about underlying numbers and local examples that members said illustrated the conference report's uneven reach — for example, members recited multi-year tax-levy increases in specific cities that they said would receive no relief under the conference text. Supporters noted the conference agreement worked in conjunction with separate property-tax buy-downs and homestead exemptions already passed during the session.

Ending: The failed conference report sends SB 10 back to negotiations; several members said they hoped the Senate and House would rework the package to restore amendments the House had adopted or otherwise broaden the bill’s reach.