Not living in Austin, I missed the news that several de-annexation elections were on the May 4th ballot.
In 2017, Texas lawmakers passed a bill stopping cities in large counties from being able to annex areas if residents didn’t want to be part of the city. But between the time the law passed and when it went into effect, many areas were annexed.
Last year, lawmakers passed House Bill 3053 to allow neighborhoods that were annexed during that time period to disannex, if voters approve.
Lost Creek in West Austin is the largest area proposing to deannex itself from the city. It’s been a part of Austin since 2015, but many residents have been petitioning to separate them from the city, claiming they’ve been paying city taxes for services that have been lacking. Neighbors in the area have had to pay for off-duty sheriffs to patrol the area.
The results? Anywhere voters voted (for a couple of propositions, literally no one showed up to vote), they voted to get the hell out of Austin.
Three areas voted to disannex from Austin after saying they’re paying for services they don’t receive.
Katieva Kizer lives on Blue Goose Road in northeast Austin, which is one of the six neighborhoods that voted to leave Austin’s city limits on Saturday.
“The whole time we’ve been with them, it’s been a run around as to who should provide anything,” Kizer said.
Texas passed HB 3053 which stopped cities in large counties from being able to annex areas if residents didn’t want to be part of the city. But between March 2015 and December 2017, many neighborhoods were annexed.
“My grandfather fought the annexation of this little area the whole time here until he died in 2015,” Kizer said. “He was the kind of guy that would call the county … Call the city and tell them, ‘You need to come do things.’”
Kizer said they never got any benefits from the city in the seven years they were annexed and that their roads and water infrastructure deteriorated.
“I did call and contact the city for services, and they’re like, ‘No, we’re not up to date in your area to provide those services,'” Kizer said. “Huge potholes everywhere … They didn’t actually come and fix our road until they started doing new construction in the rest of the area. It was only to benefit the newcomers to the area, not anybody that’s already been here and paying taxes.”
Lost Creek, Blue Goose Road and River Place Outparcels voted to leave Austin on Saturday. Kizer was one of the three people to vote and said there are nine or 10 houses in their 28-acre neighborhood.
“They can’t tell you that every vote doesn’t count because three of us voted, and it could have just been one of us,” Kizer said. “If it was none of us, then it would have stayed the same. So every vote does matter. It does count … Because just the three of us made the decision for all of us.”
Disannexing means they will no longer receive certain city services, like fire or police protection, no street maintenance, public health sanitation, and more.
“There weren’t a lot of things to look forward to or that they were giving us,” Kizer said. “So, the major benefit is that I get to go back to being county taxed.”
Lost Creek, the largest of the neighborhoods at 738 acres, had more than 1,500 people vote with 91% for disannexing. River Place Outparcels, a 212-acre area, only had one person vote for disannexing, and no one vote against it.
The City of Austin seems to have no problem finding money for the homeless industrial complex or funding toy trains, but falls down on basic necessities like fixing potholes.
As foretold by the Historical Records
Until Austin gets its act together (or the charter is revoked), maybe the legislature should let any neighborhood in Austin vote to disannex itself from the People’s Republic…
(Hat tip: Dwight.)
Tags: 2024 Election, Austin, de-annexation, Elections, Texas, Texas House Bill 3053
“Three areas voted to disannex from Austin after saying they’re paying for services they don’t receive.”
This represents a local issue that could just as easily be applied to the entire nation in general. We are all paying for services we no longer receive, and are in many cases now paying for services that are actively used in ways to ensure we don’t receive them.
From Austin to Ann Arbor to Albany, our taxes are being used against us for things we never voted for by people you never voted in and for people that aren’t even citizens.
We are being scammed on a level unprecedented in our history, and it’s been going on for decades. Divest, de-annex, and destroy….all of it.
[…] CITY BLUES: Given The Chance, Austin Voters Escape Austin. “Three areas voted to disannex from Austin after saying they’re paying for services they […]
How the hell are there ballot issues where no one votes? Are people from outside the area allowed to put forth ballot issues when they can’t vote on them?
Here in IL, there has been a movement to oust Cook Co. from the State for decades. Unfortunately, the State legislature has to approve any such move, and guess who dominates that body. We remain captives.
In their latest move to destroy the State, the Chicago Public School unions have announced that the system need $50B for the new budget. The tax base for the entire State if $50.7B. Sure, it’s meant to be a bargaining position only – but imagine what they will get with that as a starting point. And remember: This is one of the worst school systems in the world re student achievement.
@JNorth
Since Austin voters have so much in common with places like San Fran and New York, I’d say they have no problem putting forth ballot issues that they pulled straight from their butts.
Illinois is such a corrupt state that most of the residents don’t even realize how corrupt it is.
McHenry County, circa 1990… I’m talking to a resident who is outraged that I’ve said that the state is corrupt, and filled with corrupt government entities. I get lectured about how I’m wrong, and that Illinois is just like everywhere else…
Same guy? Week or two before that conversation, he’s telling me how he got his cousin, a county road supervisor, to come out and pave his half-mile long driveway. With a county crew, using county equipment, and county materials. He paid his cousin a few hundred bucks; the estimate he got on a legit contractor doing the job was somewhere in the neighborhood of 15-20 grand.
He literally didn’t think that was corrupt. It was just “buddies helping buddies”, and never mind that the tax budget for the county paid those guys on the crew for the work they did, the equipment they used, and all of the materials.
Mind-boggling.
I often tell people (especially from out of state) I live in Houston. I live in the Houston area, but shortly after moving to the area (in 1979) I decided I never want to live in Houston proper. I either lived in Friendswood or League City, both southern suburbs. All the advantages of access to Houston without the liabilities of living inside Houston city limits.
I currently live in League City, which has the further advantage of being in Galveston County. During Covid I often clamed sanity returned south of Clear Creek (the boundary between Harris and Galveston Counties.
Yeah. I understand why sane folks might not want to belong to Austin.
@Kirk
https://despair.com/products/corruption-hand
“I Either Want Less Corruption or More Opportunity to Participate in It.”
This is good – it should be more generally available.
– Any neighborhood that wants to disassociate from a city should have the right to vote to do so. They either become part of a neighboring city (if the neighboring city agrees) or unincorporated.
– any township or incorporated municipality should be able to vote to switch to an adjoining county, if the adjoining county agrees.
– any county should be able to switch to an adjoining state, if the adjoining state agrees.
are there ways to dis-annex from Houston? Kingwood and Clear Lake City (SE/ NASA/Johnson Space Center) were annexed in the early 1990s and have gotten NO benefit from City of Houston. Police/Fire and trash services are pathetic. For the past few years, we’ve been lucky to get 1 in 3 or 4 “weekly” trash pick ups.
This “disannexing” ought to be ramped up statewide in Texas! RE developers and corrupt blue politicians have been sucker punching the buyers of homes in unincorporated county land for decades!