The Texas Supreme Court struck down part of Houston's revenue cap on Friday, creating...
Bruze Hotze, one of the activists who pushed Prop 2, has fought that result in court ever since. While heThe court said the clause that gave Prop 1 priority over Prop 2 because it got more votes ran afoul of state law. Justice Jane Bland sent the case back to the trial court, which will have to determine"whether and the extent to which the two propositions may be harmonized" under the city's charter.
"Because the City’s primacy clause requires more than a majority vote to give effect to the citizen-initiated amendment, it conflicts with state law requiring that a city must adopt a charter amendment upon its approval by a majority vote," Bland wrote."The City thus may not rely on the primacy clause to avoid complying with the citizen-initiated proposition.
Mayor Sylvester Turner's office has not responded to a request for comment. City Attorney Arturo Michel, who was serving his first stint in that job when the propositions passed in 2004, also could not be reached for comment. "The Supreme Court’s unanimous ruling creates a $2 billion problem for Mayor Turner, half of which relates to passing annual budgets in excess of Proposition 2’s spending cap, and half of which pertains to charging citizens a monthly drainage fee which illegally busted that same spending cap," said Andy Taylor, the attorney representing Hotze., introduced in 2011 under then-Mayor Annise Parker.
Houston's budget generally is divided into two categories: the general fund, supported mostly by property and sales taxes, covers most core city services, such as police, fire and solid waste; and enterprise funds, where dedicated revenue streams fund specific city departments, such as the Houston Airport System and Houston Public Works.41 percent of revenuesPast city officials have argued that the broader cap, which would apply to all city revenues, would further imperil the general fund.
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