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Opinion News
OPINION: Houston City Council members propose property tax increase
Four members of the Houston City Council (Martinez, Castillo, Alcorn & Plummer) have proposed increasing the City’s tax rate by 5%.
By Bill King | Oct 11, 2024
OPINION: Harris County has raised property taxes by nearly 30% in the last two years
It has been widely reported by the local media that Harris County Commissioners’ Court increased taxes by 8% at their meeting on September 19.
By Bill King | Oct 2, 2024
Latest News
OPINION: Toll roads have become cash cow for Harris County
By Bill King | Sep 20, 2024
The Harris County toll roads are very profitable. Over the last decade, the toll revenue has grown from $610 million annually to $896 million, a 47% increase. Because the expenses for the toll roads are mostly fixed, the net income from them has soared, growing by 78% ($230 million → $410 million). The cumulative profit over the last decade was just over $3.5 billion.
OPINION: Unpacking Houston's electricity outages - Part I
By Bill King | Aug 27, 2024
The Houston area has been subjected to two widespread power outages this year. Many in our region went two weeks or longer before power was restored. The outages have sparked widespread public outrage and castigation of the power companies, primarily CenterPoint, by the media and politicians.
OPINION: Restaurant Business Trends and Opportunities to Watch
By Valerie Sanger and Hong Ogle | Aug 21, 2024
Restaurant operators have faced stiff headwinds since 2020, with a near-constant swirl of inflation, supply chain and labor challenges. But if last year was any indicator, restaurant operators are on the road to relief in the second half of 2024.
OPINION: Don’t Mess with Austin’s Affordable Housing Revolution
By Matt Mackowiak | Aug 14, 2024
Few practices are as infamous in the annals of medical history as bloodletting. This once common procedure, used for centuries, often did more harm than good, weakening patients to the point where their bodies could no longer fight off the diseases they were supposed to cure.
OPINION: Protect the ERC, protect Texas businesses
By Ryan Taylor | Jul 31, 2024
Texas is a beacon of opportunity for business and economic development, offering an ideal climate for job creators and entrepreneurs to achieve success. But even the most prosperous of business environments are not immune to crises and economic uncertainty. This is especially true for small businesses, which are responsible for two-thirds of all newly created U.S. jobs. A COVID pandemic exposed this vulnerability with many small businesses facing unprecedented challenges, from supply chain disruptions to revenue declines to forced closures by the government.
OPINION: Have you made a hurricane plan for your family?
By Bill King | Jun 10, 2024
Author's Note: As my regular readers will likely recall, I was heavily involved in redrafting our region's evacuation plans after the disastrous Rita evacuation in 2005. Every few years, I remind everyone about the importance of having a plan in the event a major hurricane threatens our area and update the reminder with the latest information.
OPINION: DC foot-dragging on CCS and primacy hurts Texas economy and environment
By Tony Bennett | Jun 3, 2024
The Biden Administration’s bureaucracy in leasing depleted offshore oil fields for carbon storage is troubling news for the energy transition and the economy.
OPINION: Gulfton extension of the uptown BRT
By Bill King | Jun 3, 2024
The Uptown BRT has been such a raging success that the previous Metro leadership decided it should be extended to roughly four miles on the south end to the intersection of Chimney Rock and Bissonnet.
OPINION: A primer on Houston’s tax increment reinvestment zones
By Bill King | May 21, 2024
In the last few years, there has been a great deal of media and public attention on the City of Houston’s tax increment reinvestment zones (TIRZs). The TIRZs are a murky, complex world that elude simple explanations or generalizations. It is also very difficult to get good data on them. The City has done a poor job of overseeing the TIRZs and the financial reporting is disjointed and difficult to access.
OPINION: Metro’s proposed BRT projects would be the biggest taxpayer boondoggle in Houston’s history
By Bill King | Apr 23, 2024
Metro’s previous leadership proposed the construction of two bus rapid transit (“BRT”) lines. At an estimated cost of over $3 billion, these two projects, if constructed, would be the most colossal waste of taxpayers’ money in the history of the City.
OPINION: Do not mail checks in window envelopes!
By Bill King | Apr 18, 2024
A couple of months ago, I wrote a check for about $200 to my pool company for the monthly maintenance. It was a computer-generated check that I mailed in a window envelope, which made it apparent that a check was enclosed. After about ten days, the check had still not cleared. I called the company and they said they had not received it. A couple of days later, the check cleared my bank twice, except the payee and the amount had been altered. Instead of being payable to my pool company for $200, the check was shown to be payable to a company and a person I had never heard of and were for a total of over $14,000.
OPINION: Harris County grew by 1.2% in 2023 but domestic migration continues slide
By Bill King | Mar 25, 2024
According to the estimates just released by the US Census Bureau, Harris County grew by about 56,000 residents in 2023, a 1.2% increase.
OPINION: Houston’s population inside Loop 610 little changed since 1950
By Bill King | Mar 8, 2024
There is a persistent urban myth that Houston’s core is densifying. But the Census data shows that has not been the case. A decade ago, the City Planning Department did an analysis of demographics of the city inside Loop 610 that largely went unnoticed.
OPINION: Houston ISD issues eye-opening 'Efficiency Report'
By Bill King | Mar 1, 2024
The State-directed administration of HISD has issued an Efficiency Report that documents a long list of expenditures and practices that will leave you shaking your head. Unfortunately, the much of the report is written in educational bureaucracy word salad that makes for difficult reading, but here are some highlights.
OPINION: Why farmers should take advantage of climate-smart ag programs
By Chandler Mazour | Feb 26, 2024
Nobody works harder than our nation’s farmers. Rain or shine, farmers roll up their sleeves to help put food on our tables and power our communities. But it’s no secret that the agriculture sector faces growing challenges. From a changing climate to high input costs to fluctuating commodity prices, farmers must take steps to adapt to an evolving landscape.
OPINION: City of Houston fund accounting
By Bill King | Feb 21, 2024
The accounting for the City of Houston finances is broken down into a number of discreet “funds.” For the most part, these funds are required by law to be segregated and only limited amounts may be transferred from one fund to another one. In some cases, the funds are actual separate legal entities, while others are “divisions” of the City, which various laws require their finances to be accounted for separately.
OPINION: Why is the City of Houston always short of money? – Part I
By Bill King | Feb 19, 2024
As many of you know, I have been closely following the City of Houston’s finances for nearly two decades. Over that time, the City of Houston has been chronically short of money to fund basic municipal services. One major result of this has been a historic underfunding of infrastructure. The most glaring example of this can be seen in the condition of our streets.
OPINION: Poll shows Biden border policy has backfired with Latinos
By Bill King | Feb 9, 2024
A poll by the University of Houston was released last week on the prospects for the March primary elections and the November general election in Texas. The poll unsurprisingly projected that Biden and Trump were headed to another showdown in November, and that Trump was leading Biden in that rematch by 9% in Texas. However, what I suspect the Biden campaign team found shocking was that Biden was losing to Trump with Latino voters by a 47%-41% margin. Twice as many Latino voters had a very favorable opinion of Trump than Biden (39%-19%). Only 55% of Latino Democratic primary voters said they were committed to vote for Biden. The other 45% were undecided.