Think Local Liberty director James Quintero is urging the Texas legislature to pick up in 2021 where it left off last year when it comes to property tax reform.

Quintero recently told KRPC he commends local lawmakers for taking such steps in 2019 as reducing the rollback tax rate for cities and counties, thereby taking some of the pressure off already stressed out taxpayers.

“According to the Texas Comptroller, local governments sucked about $65 billion out of the Texas economy during the last year,” he said. “That's money that's not available for homeowners to spend on their needs.”

At the same time, he asserts too little was being done to slow the practice of "taxpayer-funded lobbying" by cities, counties and schools.

“What's happening is that taxpayers are effectively funding their opposition” he added.

All total, Quintero now places local government debt across the state in the neighborhood of $365 billion.

“If you break that down on a per capital level, every man, woman and child in the state of Texas is indebted to the tune of $12,500,” he said.