Texas ETJ Bill (Houston, Dallas, Sugar Land: tax, living in, law)

[crone]

Originally Posted by Dopo

I hate the fact that I live outside of Houston and all taxes paid by businesses by my house get taken by Houston.
s...., I go to Houston once a month.

The CoH returns 1/2 what they collect in sales taxes to the MUD that allowed them to annex the commercial area.

[DabOnEm]

Originally Posted by crone

The CoH returns 1/2 what they collect in sales taxes to the MUD that allowed them to annex the commercial area.

And the MUD mostly uses that to pay down debt, not for civic improvements within the MUD.

[fbf2006]

Originally Posted by crone

The CoH returns 1/2 what they collect in sales taxes to the MUD that allowed them to annex the commercial area.

Why did the MUDs allow Houston to annex the commercial areas though? None of this makes much sense to me.

[LocalPlanner]

Originally Posted by fbf2006

Why did the MUDs allow Houston to annex the commercial areas though? None of this makes much sense to me.

They wanted the tax $!

[LocalPlanner]

Originally Posted by DabOnEm

And the MUD mostly uses that to pay down debt, not for civic improvements within the MUD.

They could also, if they chose to, use it to lower the maintenance tax rate or the usage fees.

[ftbend06]

Originally Posted by fbf2006

Why did the MUDs allow Houston to annex the commercial areas though? None of this makes much sense to me.

It actually is fairly complicated so you are not alone. For starters Houston does not have to allow these muds, but they do, subject to these conditions. And the state laws on these matters allow the city and muds to establish these agreements to their mutual benefit. That is why. In other cities/metro areas, they would often say no to a mud and the developer can develop where the city infrastructure is and foot the bill for the development infrastructure (although of course they pass it along in other ways other than a mud tax). Houston on the other hand says yes, subject to these types of conditions and agreements being discussed in this thread. I guess that is the trade off so to speak.

[crone]

Originally Posted by LocalPlanner

They could also, if they chose to, use it to lower the maintenance tax rate or the usage fees.

Mine used their share to pay for extra security.

[LocalPlanner]

Originally Posted by crone

Mine used their share to pay for extra security.

Yes, this revenue is not nearly as restricted as the MUD property tax as far as allowed uses.

[bu2]

Originally Posted by DabOnEm

Atlanta is not suffering (quite the opposite!) and the cities you named had bigger issues than being boxed in. Detroit is also on the rebound due to urban renewal. There are much more examples of boxed in major cities that are prosperous. And even then, Houston wouldn't be entirely boxed in and instead more like Dallas.

For your link, it may stop Houston's push at annexation but it still leaves millions of people in limbo. The county is stretched too thin to provide adequate services. It also doesn't stop the tax dollars that are spent locally being spread around inefficiently. There are things that cities can do that MUDs, ISDs, and the county simply can't. Let the residents vote and see what they want.

I live in Atlanta now. It was struggling although its doing fine now. It still hasn't reached its 1960 population peak.

And the chopping up of the metro leads to enormous dysfunction on regional issues.

[hbcu]

Yep, Cobb county and Fulton county for example

Also. You don’t want the suburbs to get too powerful as they’ll begin to get involved in competing for facilities and driving the cost up

Imagine Cypress offering land and incentives for a new football stadium if they complain at NRG