Texas bond elections often pass with low voter turnout and simple majorities, driving up local debt as a result. Raising voter approval thresholds could protect taxpayers and ensure a stronger consensus for public spending. Key points: Even though tax relief has been funded at the state level, increased debt at the local level has led...
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...
This issue of Veritas, the quarterly publication of the Texas Public Policy Foundation, features the Foundation's efforts to inform the public of the human cost of subsidizing wind energy, abolishing the "Robin Hood" school property tax, combating our growing civic illiteracy, and our part in the ACA lawsuit.