Texas Tax Payers Will Love This – Cities, Not So Much

Texas Governor Greg Abbott feels the pain of Texans saddled with high tax rates and his plan to help them out a little has a lot of fans. Except in city governments ...

Texas is among the highest when it comes to property tax rates within the USA, (#7), and, when it comes to the tax rates for counties within the lone star state, El Paso has the 3rd highest. (New rules just kicked in for 2025 too.)

I predicted that staffing issues were (probably) about to bring another tax hike to El Chuco and I still think I'm right. (Jeez, the city manager practically promised it.) Much to city councils chagrin though, Governor Abbott may be about to rain on their tax hike parade.

Admittedly, property taxes are a necessary evil. We hate 'em but we like the things they finance like parks, street repair, etc. Some people don't mind a tax hike IF all these services are in top form. Others either don't care about potholes and dirty parks or they, financially, have no choice but to vote no.

That's where the Guv's new plan could prevent any more tax hikes. He wants to let us citizens decide and, I'm pretty sure, those who don't want/can't afford new taxes will win.

During his State of the State address earlier this month, Abbott said that local governments in Texas collecting property taxes should receive the approval of a two-thirds majority of voters for every tax rate hike they want to implement. "No approval, no new taxes," he said, according to the Texas Tribune. - Newsweek

Simple plan, right?

If it doesn't get implemented, break out your check book. If it does, learn to live with the potholes. In fact, things could get worse if city council pulls back on services more than necessary just to prove they need to keep writing their own ticket.