Mary Katherine Stout, the Foundation’s Vice President of Policy, will be a guest on the Jon-David Wells show (KLIF AM 570 – Dallas/Fort Worth) at 4:05 p.m. this afternoon. She will talk about the veto of House Bill 2006, the eminent domain bill. To listen online, point your web browser here.
Taxes & Spending
Assessing Tax Trends in the City of Austin
Does history suggest that property taxes are too high in the city of Austin? And, if so, have local decision-makers actively helped or hurt the situation? To help answer these questions, let’s review the city’s 2024 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report (ACFR) and gather four types of data—i.e., tax levies, local population, total tax rates, and taxable values—over a 10-year time horizon. Using these audited estimates, we can gauge the growth of government (i.e., tax levy trends), assess its reasonability...
February 19, 2026