Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has launched a two-step enforcement effort aimed at ensuring cities comply with a recently enacted state law governing property tax transparency and financial reporting, an initiative that has already affected several municipalities and now extends to hundreds more statewide.
The effort began earlier this fall with targeted letters sent to a small number of cities, followed in December by a sweeping request for financial records from nearly 1,000 Texas municipalities. Paxton’s office has said the goal is to enforce Senate Bill 1851, a law passed during the 89th Texas Legislature’s regular session in 2025 that conditions a city’s authority to raise property tax revenue on compliance with audit and reporting requirements.
In early October, Paxton sent letters to at least four cities — La Marque, Odessa, Tom Bean and Whitesboro — instructing them to pause property tax increases while his office reviewed whether they had met the statute’s requirements. Those letters did not accuse the cities of wrongdoing but warned that failure to comply could limit their ability to adopt a tax rate above the no-new-revenue rate.
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By Bob Wieland | [email protected]
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