Editor’s note: The above video is from Jan. 10, 2025 and is related to new design elements flagged in the Project Connect draft environmental impact statement.
AUSTIN (KXAN) — A new bill filing in the Texas Legislature could prohibit tax rate elections from funding multi-billion-dollar capital projects — including those like Austin’s Project Connect light rail program.
Rep. Ellen Troxclair (R-Lakeway) filed House Bill 3879, also known as the Texas Taxpayer & Voter Defense Act. The bill is intended to “close two perceived loopholes in the law,” including the use of tax-rate elections to fund substantial capital projects as well as a lack of limits on how much a project can change in scope or costs once voters have weighed in on it.
KXAN reached out to both Austin Transit Partnership — the organization overseeing the delivery of Project Connect — as well as the city of Austin for comment regarding the bill filing. We will update this story once we’ve received a response.
Troxclair’s bill calls on an amendment to the Texas Tax Code to add a definition for projects that “materially deviate” from what voters approved, including those that “make a significant change in carrying out the purposes state to voters on a ballot proposition.” Those significant changes defined in the bill include substantial changes in purpose, the financing structure for the purpose, an increase of 33% or more in the actual or project costs of the purpose as well as a sizable reduction in the project’s scope or scale.
While the bill’s language doesn’t specifically name Project Connect, Troxclair did address Austin’s light rail program in her release Thursday. She said this would be a statewide policy applicable to all municipalities within Texas, and Austin wouldn’t be an exception.
We don’t want this happening in any city in Texas. It sounds to me like Project Connect is a mess. The OAG’s office won’t approve their bonds. The Texas Solicitor General has been assigned to a lawsuit against the project’s financing plan. Local taxpayers and Democrat elect officials are suing to stop the project. The Trump administration will likely not grant them any federal funding. And the project voters approved has been totally thrown out and replaced with a miniature light-rail line, with no downtown tunnel, no airport connection.”
Rep. Ellen Troxclair (R-Lakeway)
Texas Sen. Paul Bettencourt is anticipated to file the same bill in the Senate, Troxclair confirmed in her announcement.
“This is simply unacceptable,” Bettencourt said in the release. “Every session, we work hard to cut property tax burdens, yet local governments find new loopholes. The law I wrote in 2019 doesn’t grant use of M&O collections for long-term debt issuance – this legislation will make that clear.”
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