News and Member Announcements

• TML Statement on the Governor's Call for a Special Session

  “The list of proposed topics for a special session represents an all-out assault on the ability of Texas voters to decide what’s best for their communities and their neighborhoods.

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• Eighty-Fifth Legislature Adjourns:Respect for Local Control is Officially Yesterday’s News

  If 2015 was the year that local control began to lose its luster as a governing principle among some state leaders, the 2017 Legislative Session saw the culmination of this unfortunate trend. The new, improved mantra at the Capitol is “liberty,” which translates to liberty to do anything you want in a city without consideration for the liberty or property values of your neighbors.

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• "Ridiculous" Numbers on Revenue Caps

  This week, Politifact Texas dealt yet another blow to the argument that revenue caps provide meaningful property tax relief. Politifact’s analysis was focused on the truthfulness of a revenue cap proponent’s statement that revenue cap legislation would “save the average homeowner in Texas $20,000 a year over the next 20 years or so.” Staff later claimed that what was meant was $20,000 cumulatively over the next 20 years.

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• New Members

  TML welcomes the cities of Brock and Smiley as its newest members.

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• More Phony Numbers for Phony ‘Tax Relief’

  Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick is claiming huge tax savings for homeowners from the Senate-passed version of S.B. 2, the so-called “Property Tax Relief Act of 2017.”. According to TheTexas Tribune, his estimate “is based on two unproven assumptions: That local taxes are growing 8 percent per year, the highest rate allowed before a rollback election can be called; and that if the law passes, they’ll rise 5 percent per year, the new maximum.”

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