Imagine receiving a notice from city hall informing you that local politicians have decided to drastically increase your annual rent simply because you happen to own a home in town. In Paris, Texas, the municipal government has decided that they are more entitled to your hard-earned dollars than you are. By deliberately voting to exceed state-mandated taxing limits, they have chosen to aggressively expand the administrative state, leaving citizens with no choice but to fight back at the ballot box.
On August 24, 2026, the Paris City Council voted 6-0 to adopt its new annual budget and set an ad valorem property tax rate of $0.572390 per $100 of taxable value. This represents a substantial $0.100322 tax rate increase over the city's voter-approval tax rate of $0.472390. Because this aggressive maintenance and operations rate increase exceeds the state-mandated 3.5 percent revenue growth limit, it has triggered a mandatory Proposition A voter-approval election, scheduled to hit the ballot on November 3, 2026.
This calculated tax hike is a direct assault on the economic freedom of local families. Instead of trimming bureaucratic waste and tightening their belts, Paris officials chose to push a double-digit tax increase on property owners. By setting a rate so far above the voter-approval threshold, the city council is trying to force taxpayers into funding a massive, bloated budget, gamble with public funds, and hope that voters do not show up to reject their administrative greed in November.
The right to own and use private property is a hollow concept if the government can tax you out of your home. As argued by the Reason Foundation in their legal amicus brief for Marfil v. City of New Braunfels: Regulating short-term rentals, the lease and quiet enjoyment of private property are protected by the Texas Constitution and the Fourteenth Amendment. While that case focused on rental prohibitions, the underlying principle is identical: the state cannot arbitrarily extinguish or diminish your fundamental property rights. An excessive property tax rate acts as an ongoing regulatory taking, transforming freeholders into perpetual tenants of the city council.
Paris residents must send a clear, unequivocal message to city hall on November 3, 2026. When local politicians unanimously vote to increase your tax rate by more than ten cents over the legal voter-approval limit, they are betting on your compliance and silence. Defeating Proposition A is a critical first step toward restoring fiscal sanity, protecting your home from government seizure, and asserting that the citizens of Paris, not the politicians, control their own financial destiny.