2019's Big Stories Shaping Austin's Path Into a New Decade
Never a slow news day
By the News Staff, Fri., Dec. 20, 2019
(Page 4 of 11)
May 27: 86th Texas Legislature Adjourns, Austin Avoids Bashing but Faces Painful Fiscal Future
From a Texas-wide perspective, the 86th Lege will be remembered for the one-and-done speakership of Dennis Bonnen, the first positive moves on school funding in a decade, and the relative lack of culture-war drama – averted by a much bluer Texas House with 12 new Dems, including four Central Texans. For the city of Austin, that translated into the failure of targeted strikes against our progressive heresies, such as guaranteed paid sick leave (still, sadly, blocked by the courts), fair-chance hiring, and LGBTQ nondiscrimination. But the relief at having survived this session's Austin-bashing antics (they happen every session, of course) was swamped by angst over the state GOP leadership's maniacal efforts to "reform" property taxation with a 3.5% cap on cities' and counties' annual ability to increase tax revenues. Lots of loose talk about the benighted and stressed Texas taxpayer couldn't obscure the fact that the long-sought "revenue cap" will do nothing to lower tax bills but will throw a huge wrench into city and county budgets that will be hard-pressed to keep up with inflation, let alone Texas' nonstop population growth, most of it in urban areas. In case you thought that screwing cities and counties (which are, of course, the major engines of Democratic political power in the state) was a bug rather than a feature, Bonnen got caught on tape – in the scandal that would end his legislative career – saying exactly that, with a side of petty bullshit specifically for Mayor Steve Adler, who sounded the alarm all year about the $40 million-plus hole being blown into Austin's future spending plans by revenue caps. "There's an extreme voice that seems to have taken over the many in the Republican Party," Adler told the Chronicle as the Legislature adjourned sine die. "The state's demographics are changing. It could be they're just trying to hold on to power as long as they can." – M.C.M.
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