It’s a day ending in y, so I have a new press release from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in my inbox. This one says that Paxton has “launched a major initiative” to dig into the municipal budgets of taxpayers. I, too, launched a major iniative this morning but it involved ordering gift bags, toilet paper, and dog treats.
Paxton says that Senate Bill 1851 requires cities to follow the state’s financial staement audit and transparency rules if they want to have a tax rate above the no-new-revenue rate. Paxton’s office says that as they looked into a handdful of cities and warned them about their tax rates, “it became apparent that cities across the state routinely fail to comply with these long-standing requirements.” So now the AG’s office will investigate several cities, including Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, and San Antonio. (You can see the full list here.) He’s also created a complaint form in case you want to tell him your city isn’t abiding by the new law…