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Initiatives seeking to raise taxes appeared on this November’s ballot in Austin and Charlotte, two rapidly growing cities in two of the nation’s fastest growing states. For proponents of those proposed tax hikes, the results were a mixed bag. More than 52% of voters in Charlotte and other communities across Mecklenburg County approved a 13.7% sales tax hike, raising the combined local and state sales tax rate from 7.25% to 8.25%. Meanwhile, in Austin only 36% of voters cast ballots in favor of Proposition Q, which proposed a 20% property tax hike. Proposition Q was defeated with more than 63% of Austin voters rejecting the measure.
Though Austin and Charlotte share similar political landscapes, with Democrats controlling local government in both places, the left-leaning electorates in these two cities rendered contrasting decisions on the tax hikes that appeared on the 2025 ballot. However, even though the two tax-hiking ballot measures had different electoral outcomes, the recent results out of these locales serve to strengthen the case for a reform passed by the Texas Senate earlier this year. What’s more, the results out of Charlotte and Austin also suggest how that Texas reform, which was reported favorably out of committee in the Texas House but did not receive a floor vote that would’ve sent it to Governor Greg Abbott’s (R-Texas) desk before adjournment, could be improved when it’s reintroduced in Texas or filed elsewhere.
Senate Bill 1209, introduced by Senator Bryan Hughes (R), would require all ballot measures seeking to raise taxes or approve new bonds be placed only on the November ballot. SB 1209 was filed in order to prevent proponents of ballot measures seeking to raise taxes or approve new bonds from placing it on a spring or summer ballot, when turnout is considerably lower than in November. In fact, local elections that took place across Texas this past spring, while state legislature was in regular session, underscore the practices that SB 1209 sought to thwart.
“In some of Texas’ largest, costliest bond elections, voter turnout was anemic, meaning that a tiny fraction of Texans obligated every one of their neighbors to new debt and higher taxes,” said James Quintero, policy director at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, following the low-turnout elections that took place this spring. “This is not a good way to make big, important decisions.”
“Bond elections are best decided when the most number of voters participate in the decision-making process,” James Quintero added. “Something so obvious should prompt local governments to limit holding their bond elections to the uniform election date in November—and that’s it.”
When legislators return to Austin for the next regular session in 2027, they may consider strengthening SB 1209 by stipulating that not only must all tax and bond measures appear on the November ballot, but they must also be placed exclusively on even-year November ballots. Legislators and Governor Abbott need only point to the elections this past November and how much smaller the electorate was compared to the elections that took place one year prior in November 2024.
There were 164,504 total votes cast in Austin this past November on Proposition Q, with 104,147 Austin residents voting against the measure. Only one year prior, turnout was 41% higher, when 233,376 Austin residents voted in November 2024.
The recent election in Charlotte also underscores how more voters would have a say if tax and bond measures were required to appear only on even-year November ballots. While 177,735 votes were cast this past November on the local sales tax hike, 580,321 Mecklenburg County voters turned out for the election one year prior, in November 2024.
Had North Carolina lawmakers referred the aforementioned sales tax hike to the ballot in November of 2024 instead of 2025, that would’ve nearly tripled the number of voters who had a chance to weigh in. Had the recently-approved sales tax hike appeared on Mecklenburg County’s 2024 general election ballot, at least 290,161 voters would have had to approve it in order for it to pass. This past November, however, as few as 88,868 affirmative votes were needed to approve the sales tax hike, less than a third of the votes that were needed for passage only 12 months earlier.
Even if the Mecklenburg County sales tax hike had been referred to the higher turnout 2024 general election, less than a quarter of all Mecklenburg residents would’ve been able to saddle everyone with a more than 13% sales tax hike. By placing it on the 2025 general election ballot, it only required affirmative votes from 7.4% of Mecklenburg County residents to pass the recently enacted sales tax hike, which local media outlets misleadingly advertised as a “one cent” sales tax hike or a “one percent” rate hike, rather than the more than 13% rate hike that the ballot measure actually imposes.
When reporting on the advancement of SB 1209 this past spring, as it was under consideration in the Texas Legislature, this author noted that Senator Hughes’ proposal “could be a model that state legislators elsewhere seek to implement.” The election results in Austin and Charlotte this November are the most recent examples demonstrating the need for a reform like SB 1209, in addition to highlighting how it could be improved, but they are far from the only examples.
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/patrickgleason/2025/11/30/2025-election-results-boost-case-for-reform-passed-by-texas-senate/
