Since the Texas Legislature created all local governments, it has the obligation to review those local governments and their policies that take away freedom and impose financial and procedural burdens on citizens.
The Legislature should impose restraints on cities' and counties' authority when they abuse that authority with respect to their citizens. Why should cities have unconstrained authority to annex property without those being annexed having any mechanism to resist if annexation is not in their best interest. That is a taking of property rights without just compensation, in fact, those being annexed have to then pay additional taxes to the city. What a deal, they take your rights and make you pay for it!
One of Lt. Governor Patrick's top ten legislative priorities is property tax reform. That may require the state to impose limitations on all property tax authorities, including cities, because they play the game of holding tax rates down while appraisals skyrocket. This results in more money leaving the taxpayers pocket year after year. City, county and school budgets increase annually at a rate exceeding population growth plus inflation. Why is that? Because there are no constraints on how much local governments can tax people's property.
Finally, why should cities that own utility systems be allowed to keep secret the contracts they sign with private companies? The weak arguments used by cities, the companies and their lobbyists are that competitive information has to be protected. That is just a smoke screen! If the companies knew up front that the contracts were open to the public, they would not include competitive information. If they think the "price" is competitively sensitive information, then the public's right to know trumps that argument.
Remember, secrecy is the breeding ground for cronyism and fraud.
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