State lawmakers are trying to reform a complicated taxing system where everything from suburban growth to gentrification and a homeowner’s age influence how much Texans pay their local governments.
Chris Essig
Chris Essig is the data visuals editor at The Texas Tribune. Based in Austin, he leads a team of developers who build charts, maintain public databases and analyze data to help reporters hold elected officials accountable. Chris has been a newsroom developer for 10 years and has worked in several local newsrooms. As a native of the Midwest, Chris received his journalism degree from Eastern Illinois University and spent six years in Iowa working at The Gazette in Cedar Rapids and at the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier in Waterloo.
Posted in
Graphics and data reporting
Texas officials call it “property tax relief” — but legislation won’t lower tax bills or decrease budgets
The fight over property tax rates is really about state leaders telling local officials how much their revenues can grow before voters get to step in.
Posted in
Graphics and data reporting
How do Texas governments calculate your property taxes? Here’s a primer.
Several government entities — from appraisal districts to city councils — play independent roles that collectively determine how much money Texas landowners owe local governments each year.
Posted in
Graphics and data reporting
Texas’ savings account is poised to hit $15 billion. How much will lawmakers spend?
As lawmakers debate costly investments in property tax reduction and public schools, they’re eyeing the state savings account for a sizable withdrawal.
Posted in
Texas Legislature 2019
Most members of the Texas Legislature are white men — and so are the committee chairs
Four out of every five committee chairs this session are men, and 72 percent of chairs are white.
Posted in
Graphics and data reporting
Texas State students were likely a key factor in flipping this conservative county to Democrats
Beto O’Rourke surged to a 15-point edge over Ted Cruz in Hays County during last week’s election, even though the Central Texas county hadn’t voted for a Democrat at the top of the ticket since 1992.
Posted in
Graphics and data reporting
Are Texas suburbs slipping away from Republicans?
In Williamson, Hays, Collin and Fort Bend counties, Republicans saw their dominance falter on Tuesday.
Posted in
Texas Elections 2018
Gerrymandering backfired for Texas Republicans in Dallas County in 2018
Republicans hoped to keep a majority Texas House seats from Dallas County when they redrew district boundaries in 2011. Seven years later, they’ve only held onto two of 14.
Posted in
Graphics and data reporting
Where Ted Cruz’s close victory over Beto O’Rourke stands among Texas’ historical election results
It was the closest a Democrat came to toppling a Republican incumbent U.S. senator since 1978. And while O’Rourke beat Cruz in some traditional GOP strongholds, it wasn’t enough to overcome rural Texas counties and some suburbs that remain fiercely loyal to Cruz.
Posted in
Graphics and data reporting
Here’s how Texas voted in every U.S. Senate election since 1961
U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz won re-election in 2018 against Democrat Beto O’Rourke by about 2.6 percentage points. Here’s a look at the margins of victory for every U.S. Senate election in Texas since 1961.