Texas Attorney General issues warning to 130 cities about potential revenue transparency violations

More than one hundred Texas cities have been given a warning against illegal raises in property taxes from the Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.

Paxton claims that the cities include in the list containing 130 municipalities may not be in compliance with certain rules on reporting a city’s finances.

Under a new Texas law, cities are prohibited from raising taxes levels above the previous year’s.

The “no-new-revenue” rate declares that cities can only collect roughly the same amount of money brought in the previous year, even with consideration of increased home values in the city.

The Attorney General’s office stated that it has reviewed more than a thousand cities across the state and found that at least 130 of them may not be in compliance with the new rules.

The list includes eight West Texas cities: Alpine, Balmorhea, Big Spring, Crane, Grandfalls, Kermit, McCamey, and Wickett. Other regional cities on the list also include Lamesa and Snyder.

The listed cities are now being told they could face penalties of they try to collect more tax revenue without complying with state law.