Cuts to school property tax bills. Bigger tax benefits for homeowners. A controversial idea to limit property tax growth. Here’s what you need to know about the brewing property tax debate at the Texas Legislature.
housing
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Texas Legislature 2023
Texas renters got unprecedented help during the pandemic. The Legislature is unlikely to extend it.
Lawmakers will decide whether to keep protections that shielded tenants from eviction — or to ban them.
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Texas Legislature 2023
Texas House’s property tax bill calls for $17 billion in cuts, tighter appraisal cap
Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan’s proposal reveals the different roads the Texas House and Senate want to take on property taxes — and the fight that might emerge between the two chambers this session.
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Politics
Mayors in some of Texas’ biggest cities face little opposition in May reelection bids
San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg and Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker face little opposition in their reelection bids. Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson doesn’t have any challengers.
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Economy
Houston wanted to lead the nation in long-term affordable housing. Now it’s backpedaling.
Houston’s community land trust was once touted as an innovative way to address its housing crisis. But city leaders slashed its funding by half as bureaucracy bogged down the program and enthusiasm dwindled.
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Texas Legislature 2023
Here’s what you need to know about the fight over property tax cuts in the Texas Legislature
Republicans are wrestling over how much of the state’s nearly $33 billion budget surplus to spend on property taxes. Democrats have their own ideas about what to do with the cash.
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Energy
Texas shelters prepare for twin emergencies: arctic cold and an increase in migrants
Cities and nonprofits are using a variety of strategies to keep unhoused people warm. But some organizations warn they’re already at capacity as El Paso sends migrants across the state.
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Politics
Austin voters elect Kirk Watson, who served as mayor two decades ago, to lead the city again
Watson, a former state senator who was Austin’s mayor from 1997 to 2001, pitched himself as a back-to-basics candidate who could ease the city’s growing affordability crisis.
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Demographics
On the margins of downtown San Antonio, a maligned neighborhood mobilizes to save itself
Born of segregation and redlining, the near West Side has long been mostly Latino, mostly low-income. Redevelopment pressures are closing in, and neighbors are working to keep it affordable for some of the city’s poorest residents.
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Economy
Why some Texas cities and counties had to return millions of dollars meant to help renters during the pandemic
For some local relief programs, a lack of staffing, political support and effective community outreach got in the way of spending federal funds to prevent evictions, a new report found. More than $30 million went unspent and had to be returned.
