Class action lawsuit targets Austin taxes over Project Connect
KUT 90.5 | By Nathan Bernier
Published August 28, 2024 at 5:03 AM CDT
https://www.kut.org/transportation/2...tin&stream=top
...A new class-action lawsuit is seeking to block the city from collecting any property taxes, potentially starving Austin's municipal government of almost all revenue, until it kills a tax approved by voters in 2020 to fund the largest public transit expansion in Central Texas history.
The lawsuit is being brought by some of the same taxpayers who filed an earlier challenge to the transit plan known as Project Connect. The previous suit — targeting the funding mechanism for borrowing billions to build a light-rail starter system — is now frozen while the state's Third Court of Appeals considers arguments.
The new suit was filed late Monday in the 126th Travis County District Court. It claims the city's property tax rate was miscalculated because it includes the Project Connect tax, which is generating revenue for transit projects including a light-rail plan whose initial scope reduced from 20.2 miles to 9.8-miles.....