News from the South - Texas News Feed

Abbott: Texas voters should weigh in on every tax increase

Published

5 months ago

February 10, 2025

Staff Editor

feeds.texastribune.org – By Joshua Fechter – 2025-02-10 05:00:00

Gov. Greg Abbott wants to set a high bar for local tax increases

By Joshua Fechter, The Texas Tribune

Feb. 10, 2025

“Gov. Greg Abbott wants to set a high bar for local tax increases” was first published by The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.

Sign up for The Brief, The Texas Tribune’s daily newsletter that keeps readers up to speed on the most essential Texas news.

DALLAS — Gov. Greg Abbott, in his bid to curb Texas’ high property taxes, wants Texas voters to have the final say on any property tax hike.

Local governments that collect property taxes — including cities, counties and school districts — should have to win approval from a two-thirds majority of voters if they want to raise their tax rates, Abbott said.

“No approval, no new taxes,” he said earlier this month during his State of the State address.

Putting every proposed tax rate increase before the voters would have widespread implications for localities’ ability to keep up with demand for services as the state booms, local officials, school advocates and tax policy experts said. As Texas’ population grows, so does the need for roads, schools and public safety, they said. Requiring any tax increase to clear a two-thirds majority vote is a nearly impossible task — and would make it easy to kill any measure aimed at providing basic services.

“We have to respect the people’s vote,” Austin Mayor Kirk Watson, a former state senator, said. “We shouldn’t create a system that allows a minority to thwart what the will of the majority wants.”

Such a requirement could further complicate school districts’ finances. As Texas has boomed and state funding to public schools has stagnated, school districts have increasingly turned to voters to help them boost teacher pay and cover basic costs among other initiatives, said Kevin Brown, executive director of the Texas Association of School Administrators.

[Abbott’s political muscle puts his agenda on fast track in Legislature]

“All of the things that we all see in our own lives, schools are dealing with that, too,” said Brown, a former Alamo Heights ISD superintendent. “But they’re doing it without increased resources from the state.”

The proposal also struck some as an outcropping of a yearslong campaign by Abbott and Texas Republicans to sap authority from the state’s cities and counties, often run by Democrats. But even local officials from Republican-controlled parts of the state aren’t happy with Abbott’s idea.

“While we share the goal of property tax relief, these mandates would harm effective local governance,” Rockwall Mayor Trace Johannesen wrote in a letter to Abbott posted on the social media site X.

Local governments in less populated areas of the state that already have lower property values could see disproportionate effects. Lower and slower growing property values mean taxes often don’t keep up with inflation. That makes providing basic services more expensive.

In East Texas, Angelina County Judge Keith Wright, a Republican, said he was waiting to see legislation that would codify Abbott’s idea. However, he has already expressed concerns to state lawmakers.

“Any such proposal could possibly be devastating to rural counties outside of metroplex areas,” he said.

Texans pay among the highest property taxes in the country because the state doesn’t have an income tax and relies heavily on property taxes to provide services like police and fire protection, public schools, streets and sidewalks. For the past six years, GOP lawmakers have pushed to rein in rising property tax bills — spending tens of billions of dollars on the effort. But the state’s property taxes remain high and legislators this year will once more consider ways to bring relief to homeowners and businesses.

“Republicans have been in charge of state government for almost 30 years, and they’re running short of ideas for how to bring down Texas’s already high property taxes,” said Brandon Rottinghaus, a political scientist at the University of Houston. “They’ve been hearing the yelp from the public for multiple decades about how property taxes are high, and they are desperate to find some way to put limits on that growth. I think part of it is that they’re stretched thin on ideas for how to slow down local property taxes.”

The inciting incident for Abbott: Harris County commissioners opted last year to raise their overall tax rate by about 14% to help pay for the costs of responding to three major weather events, including Hurricane Beryl.

Texas already limits how much more local governments can increase their property tax revenue t each year — a mechanism intended to contain property tax bills by forcing localities to lower their rates as property values rise. If localities want to raise more revenue than that cap allows, they have to ask voters for permission.

Local tax rates have generally fallen since state lawmakers tightened that cap in 2019. Tax-cut advocates have credited that move with slowing the growth of property tax bills, while local officials say the law has made it harder for localities to raise the funds necessary to deliver basic services.

There’s a carveout in the law that allows local officials to raise tax revenue past that limit if they have to use the funds to respond to a disaster like a flood or hurricane — each of which the Houston area experienced last year. Harris County used that carveout to pursue a tax rate increase without going to the voters. Officials said the funds would go toward paying for the county’s response to those weather events and prepare for future ones.

The average Harris County homeowner’s overall property tax bill rose about 5% following the hike in the county’s overall tax rate, according to a Texas Tribune analysis. But that homeowner’s bill was about 13% lower than it was before the COVID-19 pandemic when adjusted for inflation.

Houston-area Republicans balked at the increase and called it an abuse of the carveout, though Abbott had issued a disaster declaration in Beryl’s aftermath that covered Harris County.

“What happened is Harris County took a Mack truck through that disaster exemption on a Category 1 storm,” said state Sen. Paul Bettencourt, a Houston-area Republican.

Representatives for Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo did not respond to requests for comment.

Some GOP legislators have filed bills to repeal the carveout. Bettencourt said he’s tinkering with legislation to perhaps tie the amount localities could raise taxes in a disaster scenario to, for example, directly to costs they incurred resulting from the disaster.

Abbott’s proposal would go beyond tax increases following disasters.

Many tax-rate elections and bond proposals that won with a majority of voters on last November’s ballot would not have cleared Abbott’s proposed threshold, according to a Tribune review of election records.

Travis County voters in November approved local tax increases to boost teacher pay and fund child care. But neither passed with a two-thirds majority of voters.

Together, those measures drove a 9.3% increase in the average homeowner’s tax bill in 2024, according to figures from the Travis County tax office. When adjusted for inflation, that homeowner’s bill remained slightly below where it stood just prior to the pandemic.

Forcing every proposed tax-rate increase or bond election to obtain approval from two-thirds of voters could have other negative effects, local officials and policy experts warn. Localities, they said, would likely face higher borrowing costs when seeking bonds to finance the construction of public schools, roads and other infrastructure because they wouldn’t have as much flexibility to collect tax revenue — resulting in higher costs for local taxpayers.

Some Texas cities like Austin, Houston and Dallas each face growing financial challenges in the coming years, in part because of the state’s existing limits on how much revenue localities can raise. It’s likely that those cities would face further financial pain should the state make it harder to raise tax rates, said John Diamond, senior director of the Center for Public Finance at the Baker Institute for Public Policy at Rice University.

There are other ways to reduce property tax burdens, said Kamolika Das, a tax policy analyst at the left-leaning Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.

Texas could, as many other states do, cap property tax bills when they reach a certain level, Das said. About 30 states and the District of Columbia have programs known as “circuit breakers” that give taxpayers a credit or rebate when that happens, according to the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, a Massachusetts-based think tank. Texas lawmakers have occasionally floated and abandoned such an idea, citing the projected cost of administering such a program.

“If the goal is to be supporting people who are having trouble paying their property taxes, there are just much better ways to do that than an across-the-board cut,” Das said.

Bettencourt, one of the Legislature’s chief tax-cut proponents, stopped short of embracing Abbott’s idea to have voters weigh in on every proposed tax increase. He noted he authored the provision in state law that allows localities to raise taxes past a certain amount if they get voter approval.

“I’m a big proponent of people voting on tax increases,” Bettencourt said. “I’m not sure a constant barrage is the right way to do it. You want the public to be involved in things that are outside the norm.”

— Jess Huff contributed.

Disclosure: Rice University, Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy, Texas Association of School Administrators and University of Houston have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2025/02/10/greg-abbott-property-taxes-voters/.

The Texas Tribune is a member-supported, nonpartisan newsroom informing and engaging Texans on state politics and policy. Learn more at texastribune.org.

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News from the South - Texas News Feed

Why Kerr County balked on a new flood warning system

Published

4 hours ago

July 10, 2025

Staff Editor

feeds.texastribune.org – By Terri Langford, Dan Keemahill and Hayden Betts – 2025-07-10 17:52:00

By Terri Langford and Dan Keemahill, The Texas Tribune

July 10, 2025

“Did fiscal conservatism block plans for a new flood warning system in Kerr County?” was first published by The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.

Sign up for The Brief, The Texas Tribune’s daily newsletter that keeps readers up to speed on the most essential Texas news.

In the week after the tragic July 4 flooding in Kerr County, several officials have blamed taxpayer pressure as the reason flood warning sirens were never installed along the Guadalupe River.

“The public reeled at the cost,” Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly told reporters one day after the rain pushed Guadalupe River levels more than 32 feet, resulting in nearly 100 deaths in the county, as of Thursday.

Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly speaks during a press conference at the Hill Country Youth Event Center in Kerrville on Saturday July 5, 2025. Credit: Ronaldo Bolaños/The Texas Tribune

A community that overwhelmingly voted for President Donald Trump in 2016, 2020 and 2024, Kerr County constructed an economic engine on the allure of the Guadalupe River. Government leaders acknowledged the need for more disaster mitigation, including a $1 million flood warning system that would better alert the public to emergencies, to sustain that growth, but they were hamstrung by a small and tightfisted tax base.

An examination of transcripts since 2016 from Kerr County’s governing body, the commissioners court, offers a peek into a small Texas county paralyzed by two competing interests: to make one of the country’s most dangerous region for flash flooding safer and to heed to near constant calls from constituents to reduce property taxes and government waste.

“This is a pretty conservative county,” said former Kerr County Judge Tom Pollard, 86. “Politically, of course, and financially as well.”

County zeroes in on river safety in 2016

Cary Burgess, a local meteorologist whose weather reports can be found in the Kerrville Daily Times or heard on Hill Country radio stations, has noticed the construction all along the Guadalupe for the better part of the last decade.

More Texans and out-of-state residents have been discovering the river’s pristine waters lined with bald cypress trees, a long-time draw for camping, hiking and kayaking, and they have been coming in droves to build more homes and businesses along the water’s edge. If any of the newcomers were familiar with the last deadly flood in 1987 that killed 10 evacuating teenagers, they found the river’s threat easy to dismiss.

“They’ve been building up and building up and building up and doing more and more projects along the river that were getting dangerous,” Burgess recalls. “And people are building on this river, my gosh, they don’t even know what this river’s capable of.”

By the time the 1987 flood hit, the county had grown to about 35,000 people. Today, there are about 53,000 people living in Kerr County.

In 2016, Kerr County commissioners already knew they were getting outpaced by neighboring, rapidly growing counties on installing better flood warning systems and were looking for ways to pull ahead.

During a camp evacuation ahead of rising floodwaters, a Seagoville Road Baptist Church bus was swept into the Guadalupe River near the town of Comfort during the July 17, 1987 flood. 43 people — four adults and 39 teenagers — were washed into the river. 10 teenagers died. — During a camp evacuation ahead of rising floodwaters, a Seagoville Road Baptist Church bus was swept into the Guadalupe River near the town of Comfort during the July 17, 1987 flood. Forty three people — four adults and 39 teenagers — were washed into the river. Ten teenagers died. Credit: The National Weather Service

During a March 28 meeting that year, they said as much.

“Even though this is probably one of the highest flood-prone regions in the entire state where a lot of people are involved, their systems are state of the art,” Commissioner Tom Moser said then. He discussed how other counties like Comal had moved to sirens and more modern flood warning systems.

“And the current one that we have, it will give – all it does is flashing light,” explained W.B. “Dub” Thomas, the county’s emergency management coordinator. “I mean all – that’s all you get at river crossings or wherever they’re located at.”

Kerr County already had signed on with a company that allowed its residents to opt in and get a CodeRED alert about dangerous weather conditions. But Thomas urged the commissioners court to strive for something more. Cell service along the headwaters of the Guadalupe near Hunt was spotty in the western half of Kerr County, making a redundant system of alerts even more necessary.

“I think we need a system that can be operated or controlled by a centralized location where – whether it’s the Sheriff’s communication personnel, myself or whatever, and it’s just a redundant system that will complement what we currently have,” Thomas said that year.

By the next year, officials had sent off its application for a $731,413 grant to FEMA to help bring $976,000 worth of flood warning upgrades, including 10 high water detection systems without flashers, 20 gauges, possible outdoor sirens, and more.

“The purpose of this project is to provide Kerr County with a flood warning system,” the county wrote in its application. “The System will be utilized for mass notification to citizens about high water levels and flooding conditions throughout Kerr County.”

But the Texas Division of Emergency Management, which oversees billions of FEMA dollars designed to prevent disasters, denied the application because they didn’t have a current hazard mitigation plan. They resubmitted it, news outlets reported, but by then, priority was given to counties that had suffered damage from Hurricane Harvey.

Political skepticism about a windfall

All that concern about warning systems seemed to fade over the next five years, as the political atmosphere throughout the county became more polarized and COVID fatigue frayed local residents’ nerves.

In 2021, Kerr County was awarded a $10.2 million windfall from the American Rescue Plan Act, or ARPA, which Congress passed that same year to support local governments impacted by the pandemic. Cities and counties were given flexibility to use the money on a variety of expenses, including those related to storm-related infrastructure. Corpus Christi, for example, allocated $15 million of its ARPA funding to “rehabilitate and/or replace aging storm water infrastructure.” Waco’s McLennan County spent $868,000 on low water crossings.

Kerr County did not opt for ARPA to fund flood warning systems despite commissioners discussing such projects nearly two dozen times since 2016. In fact, a survey sent to residents about ARPA spending showed that 42% of the 180 responses wanted to reject the $10 million bonus altogether, largely on political grounds.

“I’m here to ask this court today to send this money back to the Biden administration, which I consider to be the most criminal treasonous communist government ever to hold the White House,” one resident told commissioners in April 2022, fearing strings were attached to the money.

“We don’t want to be bought by the federal government, thank you very much,” another resident told commissioners. “We’d like the federal government to stay out of Kerr County and their money.”

When it was all said and done, the county approved $7 million in ARPA dollars on a public safety radio communications system for the sheriff’s department and county fire services to meet the community’s needs for the next 10 years, although earlier estimates put that contract at $5 million. Another $1 million went to sheriff’s employees in the form of stipends and raises, and just over $600,000 went towards additional county positions. A new walking path was also created with the ARPA money.

While much has been made of the ARPA spending, it’s not clear if residents or the commissioners understood at the time they could have applied the funds to a warning system. Current Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly, and Thomas have declined repeated requests for interviews. Moser, who is no longer a commissioner, did not immediately respond to a Texas Tribune interview request.

Many Kerr County residents, including those who don’t normally follow every cog-turn of government proceedings, have now been poring over the county commissioners meetings this week including Ingram City Council member Raymond Howard. They’ve been digging into ARPA spending and other ways that the county missed opportunities to procure $1 million to implement the warning system commissioners wanted almost 10 years ago, and to prevent the devastating death toll from this week.

A week ago, Howard spent the early morning hours of July 4 knocking on neighbors’ doors to alert them to the flooding after he himself ignored the first two phone alerts on his phone in the middle of the night.

In the week since, the more he’s learned about Kerr County’s county inaction on a flood warning system, the angrier he has become.

“Well, they were obviously thinking about it because they brought it up 20 times since 2016 and never did anything on it,” Howard said, adding that he never thought to ask the city to install sirens previously because he didn’t realize the need for it. “I’m pretty pissed about that.”

Harvey Hilderbran, the former Texas House representative for Kerr County, said what he is watching play out in the community this week is what he’s seen for years in Texas: A disaster hits. There’s a rush to find out who’s accountable. Then outrage pushes officials to shore up deficiencies.

It’s not that Kerr County was dead set against making the area safer, Hilderbran said. Finding a way to pay for it is always where better ideas run aground, especially with a taxbase and leadership as fiscally conservative as Kerr’s.

“Generally everybody’s for doing something until it gets down to the details paying for it,” Hilderbran said. “It’s not like people don’t think about it … I know it’s an issue on their minds and something needs to be done.”

Howard, the 62-year-old Ingram city council member, came to Kerr County years ago to care for an ailing mother. Although he has now been diagnosed with stage four cancer, he said he intends to devote his life to make sure that his small two-mile town north of Kerrville has a warning system and he already knows where he’s going to put it.

“We’re going to get one, put it up on top of the tower behind the volunteer fire department,” he said. “It’s the thing I could do even if it’s the last thing I do …to help secure safety for the future.”

This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2025/07/10/texas-kerr-county-commissioners-flooding-warning/.

The Texas Tribune is a member-supported, nonpartisan newsroom informing and engaging Texans on state politics and policy. Learn more at texastribune.org.

The post Why Kerr County balked on a new flood warning system appeared first on feeds.texastribune.org

Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.

Political Bias Rating: Center-Right

This article presents a mostly factual and balanced overview of Kerr County’s flood warning system challenges within a politically conservative community. It highlights the county’s strong conservative stance on limited government spending and skepticism toward federal aid, reflecting typical right-leaning priorities such as fiscal conservatism and wariness of federal involvement. The coverage is careful to present multiple perspectives, including official statements and local residents’ concerns, without overt editorializing or ideological framing. The tone and content suggest an objective report focused on local governance dynamics rather than promoting a partisan agenda, though the conservative context is clearly emphasized.

News from the South - Texas News Feed

Georgetown wildlife rehab caring for more than 500 animals, many taken in after Texas floods

Published

9 hours ago

July 10, 2025

Staff Editor

www.kxan.com – Abigail Jones – 2025-07-10 12:34:00

SUMMARY: Devastating floods in Texas have caused significant damage and at least 120 deaths, with many still missing. Central Texas wildlife is struggling too. All Things Wild Rehabilitation in Georgetown is caring for over 500 animals affected by the floods, including orphaned, injured, and displaced wildlife. The nonprofit urgently needs donations, volunteers, and more land to continue its work. They have already admitted nearly as many animals in 2025 as all of last year, emphasizing the ongoing impact of extreme weather. All Things Wild provides extensive care and safely releases animals back into natural habitats. They encourage public support and offer guidance for reporting injured wildlife.

Read the full article

The post Georgetown wildlife rehab caring for more than 500 animals, many taken in after Texas floods appeared first on www.kxan.com

News from the South - Texas News Feed

One year after Hurricane Beryl: What CenterPoint is doing to prevent another power crisis

Published

23 hours ago

July 9, 2025

Staff Editor

www.youtube.com – KHOU 11 – 2025-07-09 22:22:52

SUMMARY: One year after Hurricane Beryl left over 2 million people without power, CenterPoint has made major changes to prevent another crisis. Investigations revealed failures in tree trimming and slow deployment of out-of-town crews. Since then, CenterPoint has installed 26,000 new power poles built to withstand 130+ mph winds, cleared 6,000 miles of vegetation, and added 350 smart grid switching devices to isolate faults remotely. They also deployed 100 weather stations for real-time data and improved mutual aid crew staging by increasing resources by 25%. These efforts have halved average outage durations from 80 to 40 minutes.