landlords, house flippers and airbnb owners don’t want you to vote in the harris county election special tomorrow. here’s why:

https://harriscountyhustle.com/2024/04/15/landlords-dont-want-you-to-vote-may-4th/

Until this year, all appraisal districts in Texas had appointed boards of directors. Houston Republican Senator Paul Bettencourt proposed a law (that got added to a Texas Constitutional amendment, and passed) saying that in the 50* largest counties, three board seats would instead need to be elected.

The law specified that the elections should happen, if the vote passed, on the May 4th uniform election date.

A few key facts that make this make a little more sense and underscore why you should vote:

• Paul Bettencourt, a Republican who sides with Greg Abbott, Dan Patrick, and Ken Paxton on policy issues, used to be the Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector.
• He now owns a firm people pay to challenge their property tax assessments.
• Those firms make money when you sign up, and then take a percentage of any savings you get. His takes 40%. Which means the more challenges, and the more he takes off, the more he gets paid.
• Many places in Texas regularly have May 4th elections, but Houston, which is most of Harris County, does not.
• Houston, which is most of Harris County, votes Democratic. So Houston’s Democratic voters are not in the habit of checking for elections on that day, especially elections for positions that have never been elected before.