The Houston Chronicle's latest investigation found tax increment financing traps public...
"The city of Houston was not investing in the infrastructure that was desperately needed in this area,” said John Breeding, the longtime administrator of the Uptown TIRZ. “All that this TIRZ has done is invest in that infrastructure. Those tax dollars are out there in concrete."
The city will usually collect taxes only on those pre-existing values, not on any new growth that happens after the TIRZ goes into effect.But the taxes raised from this growing value typically don’t go to the city. In Houston, however, only one zone has ever expired. In fact, the City Council in recent years has tripled the area inside these zones, and extended the lives of most of them.Mayor Sylvester Turner speaks passionately about inequality and presides over a council with a Democratic supermajority.
Annise Parker, who was mayor when Houston hit its revenue cap and oversaw most of the growth of Houston’s TIRZs, also was surprised to learn the city could recapture TIRZ revenues. “There’s been a lot of investment in the people,” said Rodriguez, a longtime leader of the Gulfton Super Neighborhood Council. “Now we need investment in the infrastructure.”
The planners recommended that Houston set clearer policies “to ensure that the areas which will most benefit, and from which Houston will most benefit, are afforded this assistance. The whole issue of equity for the citizens of Houston is one to consider carefully.” In 1999, the land around the Galleria was already among the most desirable real estate in Houston. Property owners there had pooled their money into the so-called Uptown District, which had installed shiny halo street signs above key intersections.
But voters rejected the constitutional amendment that would have enabled that 1977 law — voters needed to exempt TIRZs from the constitutional rule that taxation be “equal and uniform” — so lawmakers tried again in 1979 and 1981.
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