Archives for December 2007

Revised study: Foreclosure ousted no one in E. Austin

Initial report of high number of tax seizures had caused concern

By Marty Toohey
Austin American Statesman
Friday, July 13, 2007

Travis County is not putting East Austin residents out of their homes through tax foreclosures, according to a University of Texas professor heading a study of housing markets in East Austin.

The charge surfaced in a March community forum. A UT graduate student working on the wide-ranging study stated that 72 percent of tax foreclosures in Austin happened east of Interstate 35. Austin City Manager Toby Futrell said that and other statistics presented that night caused her shame.

But the researchers later learned that all 30 of the East Austin foreclosures in question were on vacant lots or houses deemed uninhabitable by the city, according to a May letter to county officials from Robert Wilson, the UT professor heading the study. More…

NELDA WELLS SPEARS FILES FOR RE-ELECTION

Travis County Tax Collector to Run On Record of Building Texas’ Best Local Tax Collection and Voter Registration Rates, Vows to Keep Fighting Against Scheme to Privatize Public Services

(AUSTIN) — On the first day that candidates can register to run in next spring’s Democratic primary, veteran Travis County Tax Collector Nelda Wells Spears today filed her official papers, saying she is eager to make the case for why her steady leadership through changing times has helped achieve the highest tax collection rate in Texas and the best voter registration record of any major county in the state — and why that performance is proof that outside schemes to privatize the county’s $2 billion annual collections should be defeated.

“Our public schools, public health, and public safety depend on a fair, professional tax collection operation free from political ideology and the influence of outside special interests,” Spears said. “That’s what we have delivered for Travis County, and I intend to ask voters to rehire me for a job well-done.” More…