Updated at 7:10 p.m.: Revised to include updates throughout.

AUSTIN — Legislation that would slow property tax increases for home and business owners cleared the Texas Senate on Monday, after the sole Republican opponent of the bill stepped aside to allow the vote.

The vote was a victory for Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, a longtime proponent of property tax relief and champion of the Senate bill. He was again pitted against his political foil, Amarillo Sen. Kel Seliger, the only Republican who openly opposes the bill. Seliger held it up for weeks before changing his mind Monday morning and voting to allow the debate to proceed.

“Today is a historic day,” Patrick said after the vote. “We heard a lot of comments from the floor ... from those in opposition who were concerned about cities and counties and their budgets. We’re concerned about the people’s budget — that’s what we’re concerned about.”

Senate Bill 2 passed 18-12 with Seliger joining the Democrats in opposition. One senator, Brownsville Democrat Eddie Lucio, was present but did not vote. The bill will be debated in the Texas House, which has written its own version of the priority legislation, a week from Wednesday.

Authored by Houston Republican Sen. Paul Bettencourt, a former tax assessor-collector, SB2 would slow property tax growth by limiting how much revenue local governments and school districts can collect each year. It would not make tax bills smaller.

The bill is a top priority of Republican leadership, many of whom campaigned on the promise of delivering tax relief by reining in tax revenue collected by local governments. City and county leaders in North Texas have overwhelmingly opposed the bill, saying the legislation caps their main revenue stream and will hurt their ability to fund critical government services, including police and fire protection.

SB2, which was changed on the Senate floor Monday, caps property tax revenue growth for counties, cities and special taxing districts at 3.5% a year, up from 2.5% in the original version. School districts would stay capped at 2.5% a year; however, they are getting a boost of new funding under separate legislation this session.

The cap could be exceeded if taxing districts hold elections and voters approve the increase. Currently, local governments can increase property tax revenue by up to 8% a year without an election.

Seliger stands down

Just last week, it appeared as though the legislation was stalled at Seliger’s hands.

The Senate has a rule that three-fifths of its 31 members must agree to bring legislation to the floor for debate. But Seliger’s defection, combined with Democratic opposition, was enough to block the bill from reaching the 19-vote threshold.

On Friday, Patrick sent shockwaves through the Senate when he announced he would circumvent Seliger by temporarily setting aside the rule and forcing a vote, a move dubbed the “nuclear option.”

Patrick’s threat worked. Seliger stood down Monday, saying that while he still strongly opposed the bill, he would abandon his resistance because he did not want to see the Senate toss out its traditions.

“The cause was to not have the bill pass at all,” Seliger said after the vote. “It became very clear that the cause was lost.

"But then what was also lost, had the nuclear option been exercised, I think, was the reputation of the Texas Senate as deliberative and collegial.”

Patrick was going to get his way no matter what, Seliger said, so he opted to fall on his sword to protect the Senate’s reputation.

Patrick dismissed Seliger’s criticism in an interview with reporters.

“Being a statesman means when you run for office, you tell people what you’re going to do, and then you go do it,” he said. “You don’t get tied up in the procedures that the people back home don’t know or care about. What they want is tax relief, and my job as lieutenant governor is keeping my promise to the people.”

Patrick, an ultraconservative Republican, and Seliger, more of a centrist, have butted heads for years. But the feud boiled over this year when the lieutenant governor stripped Seliger of his leadership positions and criticized him for making what he said was a "lewd" comment to a staffer.

The move was seen as a huge blow to Seliger, who's been known as a consensus-builder during his 15 years in the Senate. While he lost his job as committee chairman, he still had his vote, and it was suddenly a powerful one.

Patrick’s threat to bypass the rules robbed Seliger of that new clout. But he issued a warning Monday afternoon to those who refuse to compromise in the event that Democrats take back control of the Legislature.

“We're going to pay a really high price someday. We're going to deserve every indignity that a new majority would heap on us,” he said.

Dems fight back

Bettencourt, the bill's author, said property taxes are increasing at an unsustainable rate and threaten homeownership. The average homeowner in Dallas, according to an analysis by The Dallas Morning News, saw a tax bill increase of 15% last year and 55% over the past six years.

"This is a day taxpayers of Texas have long waited for," Bettencourt said. "A recognition that they're being taxed out of their homes and their businesses."

Democrats complained that the bill provides no real property tax relief, while hurting local governments.

“The problem is you can’t be both the victim and the perpetrator,” said Sen. Kirk Watson, D-Austin, noting that property taxes have spiked because the Legislature has failed to properly fund public education for years. “We all know it was the Legislature’s willful neglect that created this crisis, and [SB2] won’t fix it.”

Democrats unsuccessfully tried to amend the bill on the floor to increase the revenue cap and create exemptions that would give local governments more flexibility.

House members were on standby for several hours, expecting to take up their own property tax vote. But as the Senate debate continued for hours, the House decided to move the vote to next week.

Rep. Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock, authored the House version, which initially identical to Bettencourt’s bill before it was changed in committee to remove school and special taxing districts.

On Monday morning, Gov. Greg Abbott signaled that he expected schools to be included in any legislation to cap property taxes.

"I think that everybody, at least the majority of people in the Capitol, are in favor of keeping a lid on the ability of school districts to increase their tax rates more than 2.5% a year," he said noting that schools are getting $6 billion in additional aid over the next two years.