Greg Abbott says he wants to help you with property tax. That sounds good.
However, I am running for Governor of Texas. So is Abbott. If he wants to stop wasteful local spending, why isn’t he running for city council like I did? When I was on city council I worked to reduce spending and you can see my record at PatDixon.org. Abbott could run for mayor, school board president, or many other local offices.
Notice he is offering no solution to reduce local spending. His plan (https://www.gregabbott.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Empowering-Texas-Taxpayers.pdf) is only about limiting local government revenue. He isn’t offering a way to make the cost of schools, cities, counties, and emergency services lower. Is he trying to cut pay for teachers and police? When I was on city council I worked to increase pay for police so that we retain the good ones and don’t end up in costly lawsuits that go to the Supreme Court, which happened to Lago Vista in the Atwater case.
I suspect he really does not intend to stop wasteful local spending because he can’t. Instead, a Governor could reduce state spending. When Ann Richards left office the state budget was $35B per year. Under Republicans it has grown to $169B per year (almost 5 time more). If you factor population and inflation, it is not as bad. The per capita state budget adjusted for inflation rose from $4,135 after Ann Richards to $5,329 today.
Republicans have grown the state budget. I expect Abbott to continue to grow government. His annual report shows that he likes spending your money to grow Texas by moving more of the local government tax burden from AI data centers and other corporate benefactors to Texas taxpayers.
Greg Abbott is not providing a plan to lower state or local spending.