New data from the Bond Review Board suggests that Texas’ local debt soared to a total of $461.3 billion in fiscal year (FY) 2023, up from $417 billion in the prior year. That one-year jump represents a $44 billion increase or roughly 11% growth. The most deeply indebted governmental entities were public school districts. In...
A recent write-up from the Texas Tribune highlights an interesting phenomenon taking root in many major downtown Texas cities: that is, a “glut of empty office space.” As the article explains further: The Austin, Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston areas have office vacancy rates that range from 21% to 25%, vacancies that could complicate the post-pandemic...
Earlier this year, the Texas Legislature passed a new law (Senate Bill 2038) giving residents trapped in the extraterritorial jurisdiction (ETJ) “an exit strategy through either a petition or election process.” The law originated, in part, from concerns that “residents and property owners [were] subject to the regulatory authority of municipalities in the extraterritorial jurisdiction”...
Austin’s costly and controversial transit plan, Project Connect, is in the news again, after a group of area residents filed a lawsuit “arguing that the current plan is so different from the one presented to voters in 2020, that it should be put to the vote again.” To press home that point, the lawsuit offers...
In August, I wrote that “local governments everywhere seem to be scheming over how to get a big cut of your [property tax] relief,” and that bond elections and voter-approval tax rate elections (VATREs) were 2 main ways this erosion could happen. Well, with the November election cycle officials concluded, it’s possible to take stock...
On Tuesday, Texas voters went to the polls to say YEA or NAY to 214 separate new debt propositions worth $26.2 billion (principal only). Based on a cursory review of the official and unofficial election results, it is clear that most of the borrowing was approved. Using the Bond Review Board’s bond election database, we’ve...
On Tuesday, Texas voters overwhelmingly approved Proposition 4, a constitutional amendment to increase the residence homestead exemption for school district purposes from $40,000 to $100,000. With 99% of precincts reporting, voters approved of the measure by a margin of 83.4% vs. 16.6%. The passage of Proposition 4 cements the Legislature’s $18 billion tax relief package,...
Prosper ISD, a small affluent school district in North Texas, is asking voters to approve four bond propositions costing $2.8 billion (principal only) or more than $5 billion when principal and interest are both accounted for, according to the Voter Information Document. But while most people, including myself, have been fixated on the bond package’s...
The city of Houston has developed something of an addiction to federal pandemic aid. But its supply of “free” federal dollars will soon run dry, leaving many worried about its fiscal future. To date, the city of Houston has received more than $1 billion in pandemic aid through the American Rescue Plan. Much of this...
It’s election season, which means Texas local governments are, once again, asking voters to approve huge quantities of new debt. In fact, according to the Bond Review Board’s bond election database, Texas cities, counties, school districts, and special districts are seeking voter-approval for 199 separate propositions in all, which are worth a combined $24.4 billion...
Several years ago, an Austin American-Statesman reporter, Lori Hawkins, covered a gathering of several hundred Austinites who’d met to vent their frustrations over surging property tax bills and to express concern that they’d “soon be priced out of their homes.” Rather fortuitously, Hawkins interviewed an Austin homeowner in attendance, Gretchen Gardner, who inadvertently revealed some...
What do you do if your school district advocates against you? Well, that’s what taxpayers in Belton ISD (BISD) are trying to figure out. On Tuesday, BISD’s communications team sent out an email blast deriding parental empowerment legislation being considered at the Legislature right now. In the statement, which is now prominently featured on the...