A recent lawsuit aimed to halt the city of Austin from collecting property taxes for the controversial Project Connect has been dismissed, marking another twist in the contentious saga over the city's transit overhaul. The lawsuit alleged that taxes approved by voters to fund the transit project were being misused as the project's scale has been reduced drastically since its original proposal.
As reported by KVUE, the legal argument centered on a "relatively new and untested provision" in the Texas Tax Code that, according to the plaintiffs' attorney Bill Aleshire, could potentially stop the city from to incorrectly collect its property tax if the tax rate is found to be miscalculated. "By losing this case, so far, the court is saying that the law doesn’t provide that taxpayer protection,” Aleshire stated in light of the dismissal. He indicated that an appeal decision was very likely in the works.
Meanwhile, Fox 7 Austin highlights further grievances with Project Connect and the city's approach. "With this lawsuit, we tried to prove the current law protects taxpayers from a bait-and-switch scheme where the City of Austin tricked its voters into approving the biggest property tax increase in its history for a ‘citywide’ light rail plan connecting to the airport, but then keeps the full tax increase while shrinking the rail plan in half, to just a central city plan that doesn't connect to the airport," Aleshire told Fox 7 Austin. This reduction in scope comes after voters initially approved a near $7.1 billion plan in 2020, which has since ballooned to over $11 billion with significantly reduced transit routes.
On the legal front, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has sought intervention from the Texas Supreme Court in response to the 15th Court of Appeals dismissing a prior plea concerning Project Connect's funding structure. Aleshire expressed concerns that this might set a precedent for circumventing bond elections. "Once again, I think the Texas Legislature will be interested in stopping Project Connect from becoming a model for bypassing bond elections," he said, fearing tax increases would linger indefinitely despite alterations to the voter-approved plan.
The Austin Transit Partnership remains steadfast in its position, labelling the lawsuit as "baseless" and maintaining that the funds already accumulated will be used for future construction of Project Connect. As legal challenges persist and public meetings are set for the near future, the city's public transit project continues to be a point of contention amongst civic actors and the populous it aims to serve.
