Government 2301

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Ch. 28 City Government in Texas

• Government 2301
• Andrew Teas
• Houston Community College

2
Intro Pro Sports

• How important
• are pro sports
• franchises to a
• city?

3
Intro Farmers Branch

• The city of Farmers Branch in Northwest Dallas
  County passed a number of ordinances designed to
  deal with a variety of problems resulting form a
  large and growing number of illegal immigrants in
  the city.
• The citys ordinance calling upon apartment
  owners and managers to ensure the legal residency
  status of their renters was struck down in
  federal court after lawsuits were brought by the
  Mexican American Legal Defense Fund and the
  American Civil Liberties Union.
• This chapter deals with the role of cities in the
  policymaking process.

4
Legal Status of Texas Cities

• City governments in Texas provide public services
• Public Health and safety
• Libraries
• Parks
• Transportation
• Airports
• Water and Sewer
• Trash pickup
• Law Enforcement
• Fire protection

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Legal Status of Texas Cities

• Incorporation
• City Charter
• General Law v. Home Rule
• General law
• Less than 5000 people
• Dillons rule
• Home Rule
• Over 5000
• Can do anything not prohibited by state,
  annexation, ordinance-making authority, and
  choosing an organization structure

6
Legal Status of Texas Cities

• Forms of City Government
• Mayor-Council Form
• Strong Mayor system
• Weak Mayor system
• Council-Manager Form

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Legal Status of Texas Cities

• Houston
• City Charter
• Code of Ordinances http//www.municode.com/resourc
  es/gateway.asp?pid10123sid43

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Election Systems

• At-Large system
• District system
• Combination (Houstons 9-5-1-1 system)
• Cumulative

12
Public Policy in Texas Cities

• Paul Peterson categories
• Developmental urban policies are local programs
  that enhance the economic position of a community
  in its competition with other communities.
• Redistributive urban policies are local programs
  that benefit low-income residents of an area.
• Allocational urban policies are local programs
  that are more or less neutral in their impact on
  the local economy.

13
Budgetary Policy

• Property sales tax, homestead exemption
• Truth in taxation laws
• Borrowing (bonds) for capital expenditures
• Tax incentives
• Tax abatements (Albertsons example)
• TIRZ

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Budgetary Policy

• Houston
• FY2009 budget 3.48 billion, a 5.9 increase
  over the FY2008 budget.
• Public safety (Police, Fire, EMS) is 66.2 of
  general fund budget.
• Tax rate 64.375 cents/100 assessed valuation,
  expected to yield 878.5 million
• 526.7 million projected in sales tax revenue

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Annexation and Suburban Development

• Annexation
• Why? Increase tax base, power and authority
• Extraterritorial Jurisdiction (ETJ)
• Utility issues (MUDs)
• Kingwood example
• Bailey bills

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Land Use Regulation

• Building and Housing Codes
• Houston Codes
• Building
• Plumbing
• Electrical
• Mechanical
• Fire
• Energy
• CURB ordinance

17
Land Use Regulation

• Zoning and Planning
• Houston, Pasadena
• Deed restrictions

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City Politics in Texas

• Before the mid-1970s, political power in big-city
  Texas was in the hands of an elite.
• The overriding goal of the business groups who
  dominated city politics was economic growth and
  development.
• Business leaders frequently exerted their
  influence through the vehicle of non-partisan
  good government groups.
• Candidates supported by these groups were nearly
  all non-Hispanic white businessmen.
• During the 1960s and 1970s, circumstances changed
  to weaken the power of the business establishment
  in Texas cities and increase the influence of new
  politics groups.

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City Politics in Texas

• New voter registration procedures and
  single-member district elections enabled minority
  and neighborhood groups to gain a real share of
  political power in big-city Texas.
• Furthermore, by the 1980s, the business community
  in big-city Texas had grown too diverse for any
  one individual or small group of individuals to
  speak on its behalf.

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The Allen brothers' original plans for Houston.
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Houston Mayor Bill White and Harris County Judge
Ed Emmett