Texas taxpayers have another tool in their arsenal to educate and engage on state and local government finances.
Last week, Texas Comptroller Susan Combs unveiled its “Debt-at-a-Glance” application that allows users to quickly assess their community’s debt situation and gauge how it stacks up against other similar local entities. The new tool provides detailed debt information on state and local entities.
Education tools like this are, of course, becoming something of a necessity given the growing local government debt crisis in Texas. As the Comptroller noted last year, local government spending and debt are fast-outpacing population and inflation. Between 2000 and 2009, local debt increased by 144.4 percent while local spending grew by 84 percent; yet population and inflation increased just 44.9 percent.
So kudos to the Comptroller for helping to further educate Texas taxpayers.
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Source: Texas, It’s Your Money: Your Money and Local Debt
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