Austin (KXAN) — On Tuesday, state leaders gathered as Governor Greg Abbott signed House Bill 3 into law, a landmark public education finance reform bill.

2019 may have been the perfect year for lawmakers to pass an ambitious and expensive school finance reform and property tax reduction plan. Now Texas politicians face questions about whether doing so — without raising taxes elsewhere — will be sustainable in less auspicious times.

In 2006, the Legislature erased a big chunk of school property taxes for homeowners across the state and replaced the lost revenue for schools with new business taxes, an increased cigarette tax and a revamped motor vehicle tax, among other sources. Teachers, librarians, counselors and nurses received a $2,000 pay raise.

Legislation to rein in property tax collections would have slowed the pace of property tax increases in three Central Texas cities had the measures been in place since 2013, but taxes still would have increased every year, an American-Statesman analysis has found.

AUSTIN — GOP leaders in the Texas Legislature said this is the year they would finally deliver property owners the tax relief they’ve been demanding. First, lawmakers passed legislation that slows how fast property tax bills rise. They called it one of the most transformational tax changes the Legislature has ever passed.