> Low service state makes cities and towns who want to be high service pay their own way. In Texas, as in many states, municipalities are severely restricted i

> Low service state makes cities and towns who want to be high service pay their own way. In Texas, as in many states, municipalities are severely restricted in the types and amounts of taxes they can levy. And, especially in Texas (considering the fight over school funding), the propensity is to further restrict the types and amounts of taxes, not expand them. Most forms of business tax are flatly outlawed. And if a city tries to impose a fee of some sort, the legislature will quickly get around to cutting off that authority. Property tax limits are severely restricted, same for sales tax. For example, transit districts in Texas may not exceed a 1% sales tax and that's only able to be levied in cities that have not used all of their 2% "local option" sales tax cap. Most cities in Texas, levy 1% of the sales tax cap for "general purposes" and then another 1% for "economic development," which should be read as basically giveaways of public money to induce private businesses to locate in those cities. Cities that can't or don't levy economic development taxes are seen as at a disadvantage to the cities with that pot of money. So it's far more complex than "well, high-service cities should just tax more to pay for more."