{"id":435371,"date":"2026-09-14T07:26:52","date_gmt":"2026-09-14T07:26:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/435371\/"},"modified":"2026-09-14T07:26:52","modified_gmt":"2026-09-14T07:26:52","slug":"houston-mayor-john-whitmire-pledges-not-to-raise-city-property-taxes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/435371\/","title":{"rendered":"Houston Mayor John Whitmire pledges not to raise city property taxes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Whitmire repeatedly has touted that he has navigated significant budget shortfalls without raising taxes, even taking the rare step this year of creating new revenue \u2013 a $5 monthly residential trash fee<\/a> \u2013 as part of a broader budget restructuring that moved the\u00a0 solid waste department into the city utility system within Houston Public\u00a0 Works.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Whitmire\u2019s commitment came as the county\u2019s decision drew criticism from Republicans and County Judge Lina Hidalgo, a Democrat, who voted against the increase. The mayor presented Houston\u2019s unchanged rate as evidence of fiscal discipline despite the city\u2019s long-term budget pressures<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re doing everything humanly possible to not raise property taxes,\u201d Whitmire said.<\/p>\n

Whitmire said property taxes hurt homeowners and renters, whose landlords pass rising taxes on to them.<\/p>\n

The mayor called the county\u2019s tax rate a \u201ctough decision\u201d while touting his relationship with state lawmakers, which he said allowed Houston to receive funding for Hurricane Beryl debris<\/a> removal instead of raising taxes in 2024.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe law would have allowed us to raise property taxes,\u201d Whitmire said. \u201cSo I went to the leadership in Austin … and they gave us about $35 million for debris pickup.\u201d<\/p>\n

Houston\u2019s property tax rate has fallen since hitting a high of 66.5 cents in 1995.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The main driver of those declines has been the city\u2019s voter-approved property tax limitation<\/a>, which since 2014 often has forced the council to cut the tax rate each fall as property values rise to avoid collecting more property taxes than the cap allows.<\/p>\n

Although Controller Chris Hollins said he expects the city\u2019s property-tax rate to remain unchanged this fall, he argued the Whitmire administration is raising revenue in other ways.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile I\u2019m pretty sure the property tax rate won\u2019t increase, he\u2019s taxing folks with his garbage fee,\u201d Hollins said. \u201cIt\u2019s a regressive tax where poor people are going to pay three times as much as they otherwise would.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the possibility of future rate increases, Hollins said, \u201cThe math is the math.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEither costs are going to have to come down or revenues are going to have to come up,\u201d Hollins said. \u201cAnd property taxes are a meaningful revenue lever.\u201d<\/p>\n

City council is expected to set the city\u2019s tax rate next month.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Whitmire repeatedly has touted that he has navigated significant budget shortfalls without raising taxes, even taking the rare…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":435372,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[56,58,57],"class_list":["post-435371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=435371"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435371\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/435372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=435371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=435371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=435371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}