Hall calls on mayor to delay TIRZ votes
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Houston Mayoral Candidate Ben Hall wants the Mayor and City Council to delay votes approving budgets for TIRZ zones across the City.
“In less than six weeks, Houstonians will elect a new mayor and new members of City Council,” says Hall. “These budgets should be approved by the new city leaders moving Houston forward, not those who are leaving office. The rush to approve them this week smacks of bad judgment.”
Hall is the only mayoral candidate who has been arguing the huge stockpiles of cash in some of these rich neighborhood tax havens should be redirected to help the city deal with financial problems, public safety, and street repair needs across Houston.
Among the budgets on the council agenda is TIRZ #16 in Uptown, where the unelected board is trying to tear up Post Oak Blvd. for a $200 million bus project that virtually no Houstonians will use. Hall has criticized this project as an unwise expenditure of tax dollars.
Hall says the Uptown TIRZ is an example of financial mismanagement at a time when limited public dollars can be better utilized. The Uptown TIRZ now has nearly $5 billion in tax value they get to keep in just one neighborhood.
“Voters hear the city is in financial trouble and then they see this type of waste,” says Hall. “Voters have a right to be outraged and demand this project be stopped. I will.”
Hall is sending a letter to Mayor Parker and the members of City Council to do the right thing for Houstonians–let the newly elected mayor and council consider and vote on the TIRZ budgets.
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