Every Major Texas City Is Broke, Why?

Ajouté : 2026-05-22

[00:00:00]This isn't a Houston story, it's not a Dallas story. Every major city in the state of Texas is running a deficit at the same time. And nobody's asking the obvious question, why?

[00:00:10]I'm Charles Blain and this is Texas Tomorrow, where we follow the money even when the money isn't there.

[00:00:17]>> [music] >> It's budget season across Texas and from the Gulf Coast to the Panhandle, city managers are walking up to city council chambers with the same message heard all around. We don't have enough. We don't have enough for police overtime, for fire contracts, to fix the roads, staff the courts, keep the libraries open, anything. The deficits range from 25 million to a quarter billion, but the cause is the same everywhere.

[00:00:44]Houston's proposed fiscal year 2027 budget, 7 and 1/2 billion dollars, the biggest in the city's history, is carrying a 174 million dollar shortfall.

[00:00:51]The mayor's closing it through a $5 trash fee, and which is going to climb to $25, and a right-of-way fee, and also moving some funds into other funds, if you will. Dallas has a 34 million shortfall right now, with the gap projected to hit 83 million by 2027.

[00:01:04]They've frozen hiring and overtime.

[00:01:06]Police are costing more than it previously did. San Antonio is facing a 152 million dollar deficit. They may be raising their taxes for the first time in 33 years. Bear County says this is the worst year for property tax revenue since '08, the financial crisis. Fort Worth, 49 million dollar gap, department heads were told to come back with 4% cuts. The final budget won't be ready till August. El Paso froze a thousand city positions to close $51 million in a hole without raising taxes. Austin ISD is facing a similar Arlington raised property taxes and utility fees to cover 25 million dollar gap. Harris County, budget analysts say that they're going to be projecting a 257 million dollar deficit. Rising health care costs, law enforcement pay, and other things are what's driving it, allegedly.

[00:01:51]And of course, Corpus Christi has no water. Now, this is not a coincidence.

[00:01:54]Three forces are hitting every Texas city simultaneously, and what? First, it's the property tax gaps. In 2019, the legislature limited how much cities can raise their annual growth in property tax revenue. It was a taxpayer protection, but it also means that when costs rise faster than 3.5% and they are, especially for police, fire, and healthcare contracts, things get squeezed. Property values are falling after years of double-digit growth appraisals values across Texas are declining for the first time since 2011.

[00:02:20]Homeowners are protesting appraisals en masse in Tarrant County the appraisal district delayed reassessments in entirely until 2027.

[00:02:27]Other jurisdictions are budgets are growing stale because of it. Third, sales tax is cooling. Trade war, federal spending cutbacks, and economic activity slowed down by the cost of living all mean that lower sales tax revenues are coming into cities. Add it all up, revenue is capped, property values are flat or falling, sales tax is soft, and elected officials are pretty tight at this budget season. Some combination of higher fees and fewer services and response times, deferred maintenance, and new charges that are called taxes but exactly act like them and what we're going to be facing.

[00:03:00]Houston's the trash fee, Arlington's utility increase, San Antonio's potentially breaking a 33-year streak on property taxes.

[00:03:07]These decisions are being made right now this month in budget workshops most residents don't even know are happening.

[00:03:13]Houston's is May 20th, Fort Worth's process runs through August, Harris County's fiscal year starts October 1st, and if you don't show up, someone else decides. As we talked about last week in most of these cities, someone else is that 8% of registered voters who do show up.

[00:03:26]So every one of these budget hearings is public, every one of these documents is online, and every one of these deficits is a choice about who pays, who waits, and who gets cut. Your city manager already knows the math or maybe they don't and that's the problem, but the point is you should.

[00:03:39]Find your city budget, go read it, read the summary, show up to one hearing because the deficit isn't just a number, it's a list of things your city decided it can hold off on for the time being, and those things should not be priorities to you. And if they are, then maybe that you need to change who's representing you.

[00:03:55]Thanks for tuning in to this week's episode of Texas Tomorrow. Please like, share, comment. Let us know if there's something going on in your neighborhood that you'd like us to talk about.