Comptroller: Hundreds of new homes needed to cut costs

By Editor | September 4, 2024

CAPITAL HIGHLIGHTS

A 26-page report from the Texas Comptroller concludes that the state needs 306,000 additional homes, a shortage that has sent housing costs soaring, The Texas Tribune reported. Homebuilding hasn’t kept up with the booming economy as millions of new residents have moved here over the past decade, leaving more than half of the state’s homeowners and renters struggling to find and keep affordable housing.
“Is it a crisis today? I wouldn’t call it a crisis,” Comptroller Glenn Hegar told The Tribune. “But if we don’t find some more solutions, we’re going to be in a crisis.”
Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and House Speaker Dade Phelan have each indicated that addressing the state’s housing affordability issues will be on lawmakers’ agenda when they return in January for the next legislative session.
One suggestion drawing attention is reducing minimum lot size requirements. A bill to do so passed the Texas Senate last year but died in the Texas House.
Median home prices in Texas rose nearly 40% from 2019 to 2023, the comptroller’s report indicated. Nearly 2 out of 5 Texas households are paying more than 30% of their income on housing. Texas is one of the toughest states for extremely low-income renters, with a shortage of nearly 700,000 units, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition.
More than 1 million ineligible voters stricken from rolls
Texas has removed more than 1 million people from the state’s voter rolls, including people who have moved out-of-state, have died, or are noncitizens.
“Illegal voting in Texas will never be tolerated. We will continue to actively safeguard Texans’ sacred right to vote while also aggressively protecting our elections from illegal voting,” Gov. Greg Abbott said, touting a 2021 legislative overhaul of election laws.
However, some election experts point out both federal and state law already required voter roll maintenance and that this is a routine process.
“Year after year, people are taken off the voting rolls for all manner of innocuous reasons,” said Sarah Xiyi Chen, an attorney at the Texas Civil Rights Project.
Some watchdog groups are questioning whether the state is mistakenly removing voters it considers “noncitizens.” In 2019, the state flagged 95,000 voters identified as such. Many of them turned out to be naturalized citizens, and the secretary of state at the time resigned, The Tribune reported.
The law that took effect in 2021 set new rules and penalties for assisting voters. The measure made it a felony for local officials to proactively distribute applications for mail-in ballots, gave partisan poll watchers increased autonomy inside polling places, and banned local attempts to expand voting hours and drive-through voting, among other practices.
Record transportation investment announced
The state plans to spend a record $148 billion for transportation infrastructure over the next decade, the Texas Department of Transportation and Abbott announced. That includes more than $104 billion in a 10-year transportation plan to improve safety, address congestion and connectivity, and maintain roadways. It also includes more than $43 billion for development and routine maintenance – a $5.6 billion increase from the previous year.
“With a booming population and economy, TxDOT is meeting the moment with a record investment in our state roadway system to ensure Texas remains the preferred destination for families and businesses,” said Texas Transportation Commission Chairman J. Bruce Bugg Jr.
Many of the projects in the 2025 Unified Transportation Program are roadways noted on the state’s most congested roadways list. TxDOT is overseeing a record number of active projects this year.