The plaintiffs are the newly elected mayor of Lago Vista, Shane Saum, and Jeffery Bowen, a former Austin mayoral candidate and owner of a small construction company. Both said they are Travis County taxpayers in the lawsuit. They are represented by attorney and former Travis County Judge Bill Aleshire.<\/p>\n
Travis County leaders said the tax increase will generate $42 million to pay for damages caused by the July 5 flood<\/a> and prepare the county for future disasters. The county spent more than $21 million responding to the flood and effectively zeroed out its emergency savings account. Officials said more costs could still be accrued.<\/p>\n County leaders have yet to lay out exactly how the additional revenue generated from the tax increase will be spent. Commissioners court members have proposed improving low water crossings in vulnerable areas<\/a> or fixing substandard roads. <\/p>\n Those ideas were not explicitly about areas impacted by the July flood. But plaintiffs in the lawsuit argue spending the $42 million on anything other than costs associated with the flood is a misuse of tax dollars.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n \u201cIf they wanted to do that, they should\u2019ve asked the voters for agreement, and not tried to use \u2014 misuse \u2014 this exception for the disaster tax,\u201d Aleshire said. \u201cIt is not a provision that they can use to set up a slush fund that they can use for road improvements.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n