10:49 PM CST on Tuesday, January 6, 2004

By Jeremy Desel / 11 News

PASADENA – Area cities are exploring a new trend in property tax relief where some people will be able to keep more of their hard-earned money. It's being considered in Baytown and is about to be passed in Pasadena.

Talk around the pool table at the Pasadena Senior Center is often about near misses. But the near miss for homeowner Odie Jackson is budgetary. "You can't afford to make repairs on the house because of paying the taxes," he says.

That's exactly why Pasadena is considering capping property taxes for people over 65. A state law made that possible as of the first of the year.

"The city can handle this, it's roughly $200,000, quite easily," says Pasadena Mayor John Manlove. "But the impact it can have on senior citizens, especially like widows and widowers, who have been on a fixed income for a number of years, who have seen the value of their house go up year after year."

You don't have to tell that to Jackson. "It'll be a big help to know they weren't going up any more," he says. "It will be a big help, I'd appreciate it."

But it's not just Pasadena that's considering a tax freeze. Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector Paul Bettencourt calls it another possible tool to help those who need it. "There has been a long-standing tradition of trying to protect those homeowners," he says.

Back at the pool hall League City homeowner Lester Anderson knows what he is saying now to his city leaders in League City, "Tell 'em to vote for it, to pass it," he says. "The quicker the better."

Pasadena has a head start, at least initially, by passing the proposal unanimously Tuesday night. The final passage of a senior and disabled tax freeze for the city will likely come next week.

There are senior citizen groups in several communities that are lobbying for the same types of changes, including Baytown and Houston.

You can read more about this story in Wednesday's edition of the Houston Chronicle.