According to its website, Attorney General Ken Paxton has launched a major initiative to ensure the hardworking people of Texas receive municipal budget transparency and that municipalities do not engage in unlawful tax increases. As part of the review, Attorney General Paxton has requested financial documents and information from nearly 1,000 Texas cities to date, and that number will continue to grow. That list includes Amarillo and Lubbock.
SB 1851 is a recently enacted state law that bars cities who do not strictly follow Texas’s financial statement audit and transparency requirements from raising taxes above the no-new-revenue rate.
Paxton has launched this initiative to not only act in response to citizen complaints, but also actively request documents and audit information from Texas cities to ensure they are in compliance with the law. Any cities not in compliance put themselves at significant legal risk, and any city who has received an email information request from the Office of the Attorney General should promptly respond…