A Texas Political Update by Evan Smith for ULI North Texas: The Real Estate Takeaway

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Evan Smith is the CEO & editor-in-chief of  (The Texas Tribune) and host of . He was the former editor of (Texas Monthly). According to his Twitter bio, he is a political junkie, passable tennis player, and future ex-vegetarian. He was probably eating bacon and eggs yesterday morning at the Park Cities Club where the North Texas Chapter of the Urban Land Institute brought Evan in for a earful of what’s been going on in Austin, the last legislative session, and ultimately, what this all means for Texans and real estate.

I pulled a few nuggets of dirt out of his captivating presentation. The most shocking was learning what lousy voters we are in the great state of Texas. And I do mean lousy: we had the WORST voter turnout of any state in 2012, were 51st out of 50 in 2010, and 49th in 2014. There are 27 million people in this state and 1000 people moving to Texas every day!

But we don’t VOTE! I asked Evan why, and he blamed two things: society’s generally low opinions of politicians — so low that few bright, qualified young people now even aspire to a political career after having been told for years how distrustful and awful politicians were/are. And he REALLY blamed redistricting, and he blamed it on both parties, maybe even the Dems more! Redistricting rigged districts so much that candidates fear they can never beat the local fiefdom — campaigns simply cost too much money, and then you end up losing.

I wanted to ask him if our large transplant population had anything to do with it, but Evan had a plane to catch back to Austin. I’ll send an email.

He gave a short but powerful introduction to his site, The Texas Tribune, which I read pretty faithfully: just under a million readers a month. Evan explained to an audience of commercial RE tykes how he monetizes it: 20% of the Texas Tribune’s revenue comes from individuals who send in money, just as they do to KERA.

“We are neither left, nor right,” he said, “just like the last legislative session.”

Evan then proceeded to tell us how, despite the extreme right wing TEA party elements bursting in Austin like pop rocks, it was a pretty centrist session. The jury is still out on Greg Abbott as a leader. What IS his bend? Governor Abbott was our longest serving attorney general, has been in public life a long time, and sued the federal government 31 times!

In polling, Texas tribune readers rated Abbott favorably. Head scratch-er: — who knows when the man just picked a home-schooler to lead the state Board of Education?

Dan Patrick: he turned out to be less of a cartoon character than many predicted, but he is a former radio/talk show host who once had a live vasectomy on air. Oh and speaker Joe Strauss did not become Bernie Sanders!

But real estate: we have a strong economy and 17 billion was left unspent: this legislature chose not to spend all the money available to it. (My Big Fat Rainy Day Fund.) Whether that will prove to be wise or foolish, given the influx of people moving here, remains to be seen, he said.

There was a minuscule property tax cut Smith thinks will be used symbolically for the party to brag about — “we increased the homestead exemption on property taxes” — big deal, the savings amounts to a couple hundred bucks per Texan.

“They will campaign on this “great savings”,” said Evan.

The 4 billion earmarked for transportation doesn’t begin to scratch the surface of our transportation needs.

“It just keeps us current with the current congestion,” he said.

Nightmares of LBJ forever are dancing in my head. Roads and congestion certainly affect quality of life in neighborhoods and communities, and of course commutes. If consumers or buyers ask about our pre-K programs in the public schools, well Texas now finally has one, but only for the morning: even Oklahoma has a full day pre-K at school. Maybe next session…

Now here’s a big fat problem that could make you want to look at a vacation residence for escape in another state, just in case: the Texas school finance battle, now at the Supreme Court. If Texas loses the case, Evan said he’s heard estimates indicating we could be on the hook for $10 BILLION. Like an HOA in big trouble, that money would have to come from a special assessment of every Texan. Have to. Our schools = big problems. We have the second highest public education enrollment numbers in the country. Our institutions of higher education are in a pickle — slipping ratings and no one can afford them.

Ethics reform took a GIANT step backyards this session… I’ll let you use your imagination as to how that might hurt… or help…  real estate. Some representatives even made attempts to keep their spouse’s occupations and earnings cloaked. Kind of hard to see if someone is on the take when politicians can hide everything, no? Isn’t that contrary to our nation’s mission statement?

No wonder we don’t vote!

(Abortion: nothing was done.)

(Guns: I don’t like to talk about it.)

(LGBT issues: all anti-LGBT bills failed. The Supreme Court forced the envelope on this one.)

Health care… and real estate: spending on health care is rising very quickly in this state yet we still have a huge rate of uninsured, a real head scratch-er.

Well, maybe not so much.

Evan said health care spending now equals education’s chunk of the Texas budget at 37%, but health care spending is rising faster. How does this affect real estate? Every time an uninsured person uses the emergency room for their primary care (or just plain care), your property tax dollars are at work.

“WE are paying for it with our property taxes,” said Evan.

My idea is to tax fast-food and unhealthy fast-food restaurants to fund treatment for the diabetes and heart disease that will eventually cripple people who refuse to alter lifestyles.

Water? He mentioned it, said it wasn’t an issue this year because we got rain, sooo much rain. But it will be an issue in the future, bet your last Ozarka on that.

Get out and vote! You can see how public policy affects our quality of life and living style, from budget and transportation to how we finance the healthcare of the state. What goes down in Austins doesn’t stay in Austin — it affects every blade of grass, every piece of dirt we own, would like to own, or want to buy.

 

Candy Evans, founder and publisher of CandysDirt.com, is one of the nation’s leading real estate reporters.

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