The temporary closure of businesses and high levels of unemployment due to the pandemic have caused sales tax revenues — which make up a significant portion of cities’ budgets — to plummet.
Economy
Get the latest on jobs, business, growth, and policy shaping the state’s economy with in-depth reporting from The Texas Tribune.
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Texas Hurricane Season 2020
“In survival mode”: How some evacuees are still dealing with the dual challenge of a hurricane and a recession
Many Southeast Texans were already struggling through a pandemic and its parallel recession. Then came Hurricane Laura and officials’ evacuation orders.
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Coronavirus in Texas
This loan company was founded to help Latino immigrants. It has sued thousands of low-income Latinos during the pandemic.
A monthslong investigation revealed that Oportun Inc. routinely uses lawsuits to intimidate a vulnerable population into keeping up with high-interest loan payments — even amid COVID-19.
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The Texas Tribune-ProPublica Investigative Unit
Oportun Inc. has filed nearly 10,000 lawsuits this year against lower-income Texans. This is how we found out.
Justice of the peace courts, where a majority of debt claims are filed in Texas, aren’t required to report case-level information. Here’s how ProPublica and Texas Tribune reporters got around it to reveal one company’s aggressive tactics.
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Coronavirus in Texas
Nearly 600,000 Texans will lose access to a program that prevented electricity shut-offs during the pandemic on Oct. 1
Once the program ends, customers could be on the hook for partial back payments.
Posted in
Texas Hurricane Season 2020
Still recovering from Harvey, Texans in Beaumont and Port Arthur are now preparing for a new hurricane during the pandemic
Groups that have been fixing homes and providing assistance to victims of the 2017 hurricane are now getting ready to face a new disaster, with the added challenge of COVID-19.
Posted in
Coronavirus in Texas
In Texas, the lowest-income workers don’t qualify for additional unemployment aid
Nearly 350,000 Texans don’t qualify for the extra payment because they either earned too little from the work they lost or didn’t indicate on paperwork that they lost their jobs due to the pandemic.
Posted in
Coronavirus in Texas
Analysis: Those aren’t just COVID-19 numbers. They’re Texans.
There are 347,700 Texans losing federal supplements to unemployment insurance. And 716,000 students getting laptops and tablets for virtual school. And 11,395 COVID-19 deaths. Each statistic has a human face.
Posted in
Coronavirus in Texas
As eviction cases resume in parts of Houston, low-income Texans fear losing a place to live
Since Gov. Greg Abbott declared a public health disaster in March, almost one-third of Harris County’s evictions have been filed in the justice of the peace precinct covering the southwestern portion of the county.
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Coronavirus in Texas
Nearly 350,000 unemployed Texans don’t qualify for extra $300 weekly benefit
Texans receiving less than $100 in weekly unemployment benefits do not qualify for the extra $300 weekly payments the Trump administration is distributing to Texas and other states.
