HOUSTON – Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has launched a sweeping review into the financial practices of nearly 1,000 cities across the state, including major metros such as Houston, Galveston, Dallas and San Antonio, to determine whether local governments are complying with state audit and transparency laws.
Paxton’s office confirmed that the number of cities under review is expected to continue growing as the initiative expands.
The effort centers on Senate Bill 1851, a newly enacted law that prohibits cities from raising taxes above the no-new-revenue rate if they fail to meet Texas’ long-standing financial audit and transparency requirements. Paxton has already intervened with several cities, La Marque, Odessa, Tom Bean and Whitesboro, ordering them to halt what his office described as unlawful tax increases…