Urban affairs reporter @TexasTribune • Cities, housing, taxes, growth, transportation • Past @ExpressNews • [email protected]
Dallas, TX
Joined June 2012
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In 2020, Austin voters greenlit a 20-mile light rail system — raising their own city property tax bills by 20% to fund it.
Costs ballooned, and the project's scope shrank.
For now, it will reach less than half the distance — at about 3x the original per-mile cost.
Joshua Fechter retweeted
More than 350,000 people voted for Abbott and Beto O’Rourke in 2018. Sorry I'm trying to only do this tweet once a week
Joshua Fechter retweeted
Two years after major shifts in Latino voting patterns delivered Trump his largest ever margin of victory in Texas, affordability concerns and anger over the administration’s mass deportation campaign are fueling an expected swing back toward Democrats. bit.ly/4idUx5I
Joshua Fechter retweeted
A new report by the Houston Advanced Research Center warns that Texas' air quality progress could be reversed by the end of the decade, especially if facilities use natural gas power. bit.ly/4sn7XkE
Joshua Fechter retweeted
New: Attorney General Ken Paxton is suing OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, for allegedly deceiving and harming Texans.
CEO Sam Altman and ChatGPT are top competitors to Elon Musk, the tech billionaire fueling Paxton’s U.S. Senate campaign. bit.ly/4BoVWz9
Joshua Fechter retweeted
Rural Texans make up < 1/5 of voters. But their turn out is high & they are so reliably red they've long blocked Dem gains in the metros.
This yr rural Texas is angry over data centers and power lines. Will enough of them flip to help Dems win?
via @eklib
texastribune.org/2026/10/23/…
Joshua Fechter retweeted
Rural Republicans have long been the floodwall that’s held back hopes of a blue wave big enough to flip Texas.
But some rural voters are revolting, angry over the sudden proliferation of data centers, massive power lines and other Big Tech development. bit.ly/4yZbWX4
Joshua Fechter retweeted
New: Ken and Angela Paxton invested $600,000 in a convicted fraudster’s business
With @propublica: bit.ly/4simOwE
Joshua Fechter retweeted
Texas’ data center industry could reverse much of the state’s progress on air quality by the end of the decade, according to report by @HARCresearch. The impact on air quality depends heavily on how data centers are powered. #txlege For @TexasTribune texastribune.org/2026/10/20/…
NEW: As Texas Republicans & Democrats vow to rein in homeowners' property taxes, many homeowners aren't claiming existing breaks.
Hundreds of thousands of eligible homeowners haven't claimed the homestead exemption. Lawmakers have spent billions expanding the break.
Story 👇
Not every Texas homeowner knows about the homestead exemption, experts said. If they do, some may find the process too complicated to claim the benefit — which can shave thousands of dollars off of a property tax bill:
texastribune.org/2026/10/20/… @TexasTribune #txlege
Are you a Texas homeowner who hasn't claimed your homestead exemption? Do you know someone who hasn't?
We put together this guide on how to claim the exemption and save on your property tax bill:
texastribune.org/2026/10/20/… @TexasTribune
Joshua Fechter retweeted
I asked Rep. Vikki Goodwin about this scenario, should she win 👇
More on the race here: texastribune.org/2026/10/15/…
It's gettin' real now: Sources tell @quorumreport that the Texas Senate GOP is quietly considering stripping all legislative power from the Lt. Gov. if the Democrat beats Little Gov Patrick: bit.ly/4Bfnnvb #TxLege
Joshua Fechter retweeted
Gov. Greg Abbott sued by opponent Gina Hinojosa over his communications with Elon Musk.
Last year, @lmcgaughy got redactions when she sought the records.
Rep. Hinojosa said she's entitled to them for #txlege purposes but Abbott won't release them.
news.bloomberglaw.com/litiga…
Joshua Fechter retweeted
“I’m old. I’ve paid my home off,” said Ray Warner, a 72-year-old Akron resident. “Why would I pay property tax?”
Across the country, homeowners are asking the same question and revolting against property taxes at a scale not seen in a half century.
politico.com/news/magazine/2…
Joshua Fechter retweeted
POLITICO Magazine’s affordability issue is out. There are 25 stories and essays from across the newsroom about how we can fix it. I’m number 26, and this is why we can’t:
politico.com/news/magazine/2…
Joshua Fechter retweeted
Nearly two-thirds of builders said immigration enforcement is affecting their labor force, up from 23% in March and 13% a year ago, according to a September John Burns Research & Consulting survey.
“We’re almost dead in the water because our workforce is gone,” said Scott Brannock, president of Jacksonville-based Tidewater Homes and the Northeast Florida Builders Association.
“We have national builders who are missing projections, losing hundreds of thousands of dollars because they have slabs sitting on the ground and no one to frame.”
wsj.com/us-news/the-immigrat…
Texas now has 19M registered voters, a record.
Fast-growing suburban counties saw some of the biggest growth since the last midterms.
But registrations fell in Tarrant County, a swing county, despite population growth.
via @sashadm27
texastribune.org/2026/10/16/… @TexasTribune
Joshua Fechter retweeted
When Gina Hinojosa first launched her bid against Greg Abbott, her polling had her 9 points down — and she felt good about it.
Now, she's daring Democrats to wonder if she could actually topple this mainstay of the Texas GOP establishment.
@TexasTribune: texastribune.org/2026/10/16/…
Joshua Fechter retweeted
The United States budget deficit approached $2 trillion in the 2026 fiscal year, its highest level since the pandemic, as spending on the military, safety net programs and interest on the debt dwarfed the Trump administration’s cost cuts. nytimes.com/2026/10/16/busin…
Joshua Fechter retweeted
Masked Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian villagers on Friday, setting olive groves on fire and slinging rocks.
Caught in the attack was Post photographer Heidi Levine. “They just kept kicking me and kicking me, like probably 50 times,” Levine said. wapo.st/4yt6dHY