Yesterday, the Dallas Morning News reported that Dallas city councilmembers had voted overwhelmingly to repeal its controversial 5-cent fee on single-use plastic bags. The reason? According to the DMN: “Keeping the nickel fee wasn’t much of an option after the city attorney advised that it probably wouldn’t stand up in court.” [emphasis mine]
The Dallas Morning News’ recent article, Texas legislators mostly kept hands off local control, offers an interesting but incomplete assessment of the 84th Regular Session’s fight to rein in local overreach.
In a speech given earlier this year to the Texas Public Policy Foundation, Governor Greg Abbott warned that: “Texas is being California-ized and you may not even be noticing it.”
But the magnitude of Texas’ property tax problem has become so immense that not even these influential groups seem to be able to stop what’s coming.
Whatever the outcome of the lawsuit, we should all agree that local governments ought to observe and abide by state law.
Almost any way you cut it, it’s become clear that long-term structural reform is needed to protect Texans moving forward. Long-lasting changes, similar to what’s been proposed by the Texas Senate, are of the utmost importance.
According to the latest Bond Review Board data, total school district debt, including principal and interest, grew to more than $112.2 billion in fiscal year 2014—more than any other type of local government. Compared to the whole, school district debt accounts for about one-third of the total.
In August 2014, then-Attorney General Greg Abbott issued an advisory opinion finding that municipal ordinances restricting or prohibiting single-use plastic bags were likely in violation of existing state law. Ignoring the AG’s advice, the City of Dallas began implementing its 5-cent per plastic bag fee anyway in January 2015—and now the city could be in legal hot water.
In the course of debating Senate Bill 1760—a bill to increase transparency and accountability in the local property tax system—Senators overwhelmingly approved the adoption of a floor amendment to require local governments to reach a higher voting threshold before raising property taxes.
Among the top ten most populous states in the nation, local debt in the Lone Star State was the second highest overall, at $219.7 billion. Only California’s local governments had amassed more, at $269.2 billion.
It’s not hard to understand the motive for this sort of protectionist pension policy. Erecting a bureaucratic barrier to local reform benefits the status quo and, in many instances, prevents change from taking place, even though it might be needed.
Earlier today, the state’s Comptroller unveiled the Texas Taxpayer Bill of Rights, a set of 10 guiding principles that will help steer the agency and better protect taxpayers.