Steve Spillette
CDS Community Development Strategies

This week, the Houston Chronicle published an article about a Municipal Utility District and the dissatisfaction of some homeowners that the MUD might issue bonds, which they believe could raise they property tax rates. The article, in my opinion, was slanted toward an angle that MUDs represent a developer-run local government agency run amok, with little oversight and unchecked taxation power. What this article fails to provide is the overall economic benefit that MUDs provide, and the reason for their existence in the first place. It also doesn’t explain who truly bears the cost of the initial infrastructure – the developers.

Ty Jacobsen
CDS Community Development Strategies

As December is to Christmas, the month of May is to auto racing.  May is when the countdown begins in earnest toward the Memorial Day weekend and three of the most historic and popular events in the world of auto racing, NASCAR’s World 600, Formula 1’s Monaco Grand Prix, and, especially, the Indianapolis 500.  2016 will mark the 100th running of the 500-mile race at the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway.  The Speedway itself opened in 1909 and hosted the inaugural Indianapolis 500 in 1911.​  As one would expect from a facility that first opened during the Taft administration, the Speedway has been in a near constant state of maintenance, expansion, and upgrade over the years.   In what had become rather unique in American professional sports, the Speedway had done all of this without ever using government or taxpayer assistance.  That changed in 2013, when the Speedway petitioned the State to be made a special taxing district.  ​