Attendees at NAR NXT, The REALTOR® Experience, in Houston had an opportunity to hear firsthand how state and local governments are adapting their budgetary priorities in the coming years.
The State and Local Issues Roundtable was hosted by 2025 REALTOR® Party Community Engagement Liaison James Cristbrook, with the aim of addressing the stress points in the budgeting process and how NAR members can stay engaged throughout this important advocacy opportunity.
The session began with insights from Martha Castex-Tatum, Houston’s mayor pro tem and city councilmember for District K. Castex-Tatum is a lifelong resident of her district and an agent who is a REALTOR®.
Speaking to the budget process in Houston, Castex-Tatum likened it to a household budget, saying, “You have to identify your priorities. Sometimes you have more needs than you have dollars.”
In Houston, weather-related disasters have been a major source of those budgetary constraints. Considering threats ranging from winter weather events, flooding and fires, Castex-Tatum noted that Houston has had eight federally declared disasters in the past several years.
The session closed with a presentation by Erica MacKellar, program principal for fiscal issues with the National Conference of State Legislatures. MacKellar discussed the various ways state legislatures across the country are addressing their budgets and finding ways to overcome shortfalls.
MacKellar noted that some states are exploring new technologies as a means to generate additional tax revenue, including taxes on digital advertising, cryptocurrency mining and other digital services that have typically not been taxed.
Cristbrook noted that he’s confident that as states discuss these new policies, many state and local REALTOR® associations will be engaging with lawmakers to make the pro-housing position known. One such policy example was the “Taylor Swift Tax” in Rhode Island, a proposed tax on properties that are not occupied year-round. The Rhode Island Association of REALTORS® opposed this measure when it was introduced, urging the state not to balance the budget on the back of the housing market.
