GUEST COLUMN.

When floods in Central Texas in early July resulted in the deaths of over 130 people, Texans were outraged.

As is generally the case in these kinds of disasters, blame was placed here, there everywhere.

But the real story here is not about a failure of local leaders. It is about a system created in Austin that works exactly the way it was built to work. For more than a decade, state legislators have chipped away at the ability of cities and counties to prepare, to plan, and to protect. They framed it as “tax relief.” They wrapped it in the language of “efficiency.” What they actually built was a structure that leaves local governments defenseless when the moment of truth arrives.

Senate Bill 2 in 2019 is a perfect example. It cut the cap on property tax revenue growth from eight percent to three and a half percent, with new efforts underway to drive it even lower. At the same time, the cost of fuel, concrete, emergency equipment, and labor surged across Texas. Operations outpaced revenue, and local governments were told to make it work anyway.

House Bill 30 in 2023 took it even further by removing the disaster exception from the tax code starting in 2026. For decades, communities could raise revenue up to eight percent after a crisis without asking voters in the middle of an emergency. That option is gone.

Now cities and counties are forced to document every loss in excruciating detail just to request relief, and they can then be second-guessed by the very lawmakers who created the straitjacket.

The same session produced House Bill 2127, known across Texas as the “Death Star” bill. In a single sweep, it preempted entire categories of local ordinances. Labor standards. Environmental rules. Consumer protections. Anything not specifically granted by the Legislature is now presumed prohibited. This was pitched as a reaction to large, progressive cities, but it fell on every community, including those that never asked for intervention.

Senate Bill 2038 compounded the damage by weakening annexation and local land-use authority. More tools taken away. More restrictions handed down. Local officials warned that boldness would be punished, and hesitation rewarded. The signal was unmistakable.

So, when the Upper Guadalupe River Authority hesitated to fully fund a flood warning system, they were not reckless. They were cautious, because the climate created in Austin tells local governments that bold action can be treated as a liability. Spend quickly, and you are reckless. Wait too long, and you are condemned. Either way, lawmakers still take the microphone and assign the blame elsewhere.

This is politics without proximity. State leaders issue directives from a distance. Local leaders bear the consequences on the ground. The same legislators who celebrate tax caps one month are the first to call press conferences when the predictable results arrive.

I am a conservative. I believe in discipline, in accountability, and in limited government.

Efficiency is not an excuse for paralysis. What has been done in Texas leaves communities unable to invest in resilience. It strips away planning authority. It forces local governments into a gamble with public safety in the name of short-term applause.

The appraisal process shows the same imbalance. Large corporations fight increases with well-funded legal teams. Local governments are outmatched, which shifts the burden onto homeowners. The state already manages appraisals for railroads to protect fairness. It could extend similar protection to cities and counties facing corporate challenges. Instead, it enforces tax rate compression and pressures counties to inflate appraisals. The result is an unfair system where ordinary Texans pay the price while politicians take credit for restraint.

This debate has always been bigger than taxes. It is about sovereignty. Local government is closest to the people. It reflects community priorities rather than political slogans. When that authority is hollowed out, the community is hollowed out with it.

The irony is unavoidable. State leaders rail against federal overreach while practicing the same heavy-handed control over their own cities and counties. The outcome is exactly what we are seeing now, eroded readiness, underfunded infrastructure, and local officials turned into scapegoats when tragedy follows.

The truth is straightforward. Local governments did not fail. They followed the rules imposed on them. If a different result is desired, the rules must change. Authority must be restored. Preparedness must be funded before the next disaster, not after. Budgets must reflect cost, not campaign slogans. Lawmakers cannot continue to weaken the very institutions responsible for protection and then express outrage when that protection fails.

Texans deserve better than a system built for applause lines rather than outcomes. The system did not fail. It worked exactly as it was designed. Until the design itself changes, the results will not.

The contents of this Guest Column are those of the author, and not necessarily Barrett and Greene, Inc. 

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