Gov. Greg Abbott wants to crack down on cities he accused of getting in the way of addressing the state’s housing affordability problems and make it easier for homeowners to build additional dwellings in their backyards, he said Friday.
Abbott signed a bipartisan set of laws last year aimed at chipping away at the state’s shortage of homes by allowing more homes to be built — moves shown to rein in housing costs. But a group of cities, primarily in the Dallas-Fort Worth region, have since passed a slate of local rules aimed at curbing the amount of homes that get built under those laws.
At a campaign stop in Round Rock, Abbott accused cities of “skirting the law” and said he would pursue legislation to withhold sales tax revenue from any city or county “violating the law” — though he didn’t call out any localities by name…