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...
The Texas Association of School Boards (TASB), one of the state’s largest taxpayer-funded lobbying groups, is coming under fire for its refusal to sever ties with the National School Boards Association (NSBA). The NSBA is the same group that, in September, ignited a firestorm when it sent the Biden administration a letter comparing parent protests...
Progressive policies set the stage for a huge uptick in crime and violence this year, costing many people their property and even their lives. More from the Daily Mail: “…at least a dozen large mid-tier cities across the country have already broken their annual [murder] records. The grim trend follows national calls to defund police...
Last week, we revealed that local government debt had grown to $389.7 billion in fiscal year 2021, an incredible increase of $14 billion over the previous year’s total. This week, we dig a little deeper into the data to see which types of local government are most responsible for the borrowing binge. A few things...
Austin’s regional public transportation agency is spending money like it’s going out of style. And at least some of it appears wholly unnecessary. Earlier this week, KUT revealed CapMetro’s unofficial logo redesign, which arrives just ahead of a “$7.1 billion expansion of public transit known as Project Connect.” The agency, working in partnership with an...