James Quintero is the policy director for the Texas Public Policy Foundation’s Government for the People campaign. Since joining the Foundation in 2008, Quintero has focused extensively on: state & local government spending, taxes, debt, public pension reform, annexation, and local regulations.
Local government budgeting season is underway in most areas, which means that it’s time for Texas taxpayers to tell their city, county, and school board officials to adopt lower property tax rates. Much lower, in fact. There are several reasons to press for radically reduced tax rates this year. The most obvious is that people...
Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman once famously derided the idea that government can spend money at nobody’s expense. He cheekily called it: “the free lunch myth.” That’s true even in Tyler, Texas. Friedman’s point—which remains as true today as it was back then—is that government doesn’t have any money of its own, and so every...
Public school superintendents are some of the highest paid public employees in Texas, with some raking in more than $400,000 annually, excluding benefits. Among those at the top end of the pay scale is Arlington ISD’s superintendent who, thanks to a recent contract renewal, saw his annual salary grow from $334,318 in the 2020-21 school...
Soaring property valuations have long been a feature of Texas’ tax landscape. However, this year’s level of increase may be unlike anything we’ve seen before—at least in the Bayou City. On Friday, the Houston Chronicle reported that the average home value had risen by 21% while the average apartment value had grown by 24%. Such...
We should be able keep what we purchase outright. But that’s not the case with real estate in Texas. Even if a mortgage is paid, many homeowners struggle to afford their yearly local property tax bill. This forces too many Texans to lose their homes. And renters who pay more because of skyrocketing property taxes...
What’s the purpose of city government? Most people would probably say that cities exist to police the roads, to fill the potholes, and to put out house fires. But at least some Austin bureaucrats also believe that it’s the city’s role to also teach your kids about sex. Over the weekend, the Austin Public Library...
Earlier this month, the Texas Public Policy Foundation published a new report looking at the heavy burden of property taxes in Texas’ major urban areas. In the report, the authors compare the growth of property tax levies with population and inflation increases in the top 10 most populous cities, counties, and school districts. The facts...
Recently, the Texas Public Policy Foundation published a new report looking at property taxes in Texas’ major urban centers. In the report, the authors, Anthony Jones and James Quintero, compared property tax levy growth with population and inflation increases over a five-year period for select communities. The facts and figures are aimed at helping taxpayers...
Late last month, Axios ran a piece titled: “Teacher crisis grips Austin schools.” As the article’s title would suggest, the Virginia-based media outlet keyed in on a perceived teacher shortage in Austin ISD (while never once mentioning the huge student enrollment decline in process, with the district shrinking from 83,270 students in 2016-17 to 75,075...
Is a pay-to-play scheme underway in Harris County? A shocking new Houston Chronicle investigation makes it appear so. According to the paper’s latest exposé, Harris County commissioners are raking in campaign cash from “executives at companies awarded no-bid contracts by those commissioners.” The article even puts forward some eye-opening data to support its proposition. “From...
Last week, the Texas Public Policy Foundation published a new report looking at property taxes in Texas’ major urban centers. In the report, the authors, Anthony Jones and James Quintero, compare property tax levy growth vs. population and inflation increases over five years in select communities. The facts and figures are aimed at helping taxpayers...
The city of Austin owns a lot of land. In fact, according to a 2019 CBS Austin report, the city “has bought more than 28,000 acres of raw land over the last 20 years.” The fact that it owns so much property—especially in the midst of a raging affordability crisis—raises some serious concerns about purpose...