The financing engine behind much of suburban Texas got a daylong defense in the Capitol on Tuesday — and a warning from the people who live inside it.
Texas homeowners were promised that the state’s expanded homestead exemption would cut their tax bills this fall.
Upshur County commissioners voted July 15 to join a proposed 16-county groundwater conservation district in East Texas, advancing a regional effort to regulate the large wells that Dallas-area planners and private investors want to drill over the Carrizo-Wilcox Aquifer.
As Texas homeowners prepare to see the state's larger homestead exemption on their fall tax bills, Austin is moving to claw back part of that relief on the city's side of the ledger.
The Neches & Trinity Valleys Groundwater Conservation District board will meet Thursday to consider adopting new groundwater rules that would cap pumping from the Carrizo-Wilcox Aquifer, days after companies tied to Dallas investor Kyle Bass sued the district in federal court over its permitting moratorium.
The Tarrant Appraisal District's chief appraiser told his board June 10 that the county's freeze on home values has made its tax roll "less uniform and more regressive," an admission that carries statewide weight as Gov.
When it comes to spending public money, Texans are expressing a massive, near-unanimous demand for heightened transparency and fiscal accountability.
Commissioners in Camp, Cass, Upshur and Wood counties voted June 30 to join a proposed 16-county regional groundwater conservation district, seeking legal authority over pumping from the Carrizo-Wilcox Aquifer before Dallas-area water planners drill 90 high-capacity wells in the region.