The Texas legislature passed new financial transparency requirements, but a whole lot of municipalities have been slow on the ball to comply, so Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is bringing the wood.
Attorney General Ken Paxton is moving to block more than 130 Texas cities from hiking property taxes this year, accusing them of breaking a new state transparency law.
The word “cities” is more than a stretch here, as a lot of the municipalities here are pretty tiny.
Senate Bill 1851, passed in 2025, prohibits cities that don’t meet financial audit and disclosure requirements from raising property taxes above the no‑new‑revenue rate. The no‑new‑revenue rate is designed to collect roughly the same amount of property tax revenue from existing properties as the previous year, preventing hidden tax hikes caused by rising appraisals.
According to Paxton’s office, the action follows an investigation launched last month when he demanded financial-statement and audit records from more than 1,000 municipalities to check whether they were complying with SB 1851.
Cities that failed to meet the law’s reporting standards for the new fiscal year were flagged as noncompliant.
Paxton has now sent formal letters to those cities, notifying them that they are barred from adopting property tax rates higher than the no‑new‑revenue rate and are subject to enforcement provisions and penalties under the statute.
Snip.
Paxton framed the move as a stand for taxpayers against local governments that want to raise taxes without following the rules.
“I will not allow cities to unlawfully raise taxes on hardworking Texans. That is why I took aggressive action against over 130 Texas cities to hold them accountable and ensure they comply with state law,” Paxton said in a statement. He added that cities “cannot fail to abide by state audit requirements without consequences,” and vowed his office will keep enforcing state law “to protect taxpayers across the state.”
The list of cities that received letters is long and spans every corner of Texas, from small rural towns to mid‑sized communities and coastal municipalities.
The list includes Alpine, Aspermont, Baird, Balch Springs, Balmorhea, Bedias, Berryville, Big Spring, Bishop, Blooming Grove, Blue Mound, Briarcliff, Brookside Village, Buffalo Gap, Calvert, Cameron, Campbell, Centerville, Chico, Chireno, Clarksville, Clear Lake Shores, Combine, Corrigan, Crane, Cross Timber, Crowell, Crystal City, Cuero, Dalhart, Danbury, De Leon, Eagle Lake, Elkhart, Eureka, Eustace, Fairfield, Farwell, Flatonia, Franklin, Fritch, Fulton, Gordon, Grandfalls, Gregory, Groesbeck, Groom, Hale Center, Hamilton, Hearne, Hempstead, Higgins, Hillcrest Village, Horizon City, Howardwick, Howe, Huntington, Industry, Ingleside On the Bay, Jewett, Jonestown, Keene, Kemah, Kenedy, Kerens, Kermit, Lamesa, Livingston, Lott, Lumberton, Manvel, Marquez, McCamey, Megargel, Menard, Mertzon, Mexia, Miami, Midway, Miles, Mount Enterprise, Natalia, New Home, New Waverly, Newcastle, Oyster Creek, Paducah, Panorama Village, Pelican Bay, Pleak Village, Plum Grove, Port Lavaca, Quanah, Red Lick, Redwater, Rockdale, Rocksprings, Roma, Rusk, San Elizario, San Felipe, San Perlita, Seabrook, Shepherd, Smiley, Snyder, Somerville, Southmayd, Spring Branch, Spur, Sterling City, Stinnett, Sunray, Surfside Beach, Taft, Tehuacana, Texas City, Texline, Three Rivers, Tiki Island, Tom Bean, Tool, Turkey, Valley Mills, Valley View, Victoria, Weslaco, Weston Lakes, Wharton, Wickett, Wimberley, Wolfe City, Woodloch, Yantis, and Yoakum.
Some of these are, in fact, cities. Victoria and Texas City both have over 50,000 people, and the finance departments there should have been on the ball. But some of these are barely towns. Megargel has a population of 174. Tiki Island (yes, a real place) is a village of some 1,100 people just off I-45 on the inland side of Galveston Bay.
Different Tiki Island
I’m in favor of limiting tax increases, and the municipalities here should get on the ball for the sake of transparency. But I suspect some of the smaller towns here just need to hire a part-time accountant to fill out the forms.
Also, this article provided a great stress test to see how many tags I can add to Word Press at one time…