Attorney General Ken Paxton is standing up for Texans against Vice President Kamala Harris’s attempt to impose federal rent control policies on our state. Texas has firmly rejected rent control because we know it tends to drive apartment costs up – not down.
Recently, Harris criticized high housing costs and supported a federal push to let Washington bureaucrats control our apartment prices. Soon after, under her administration, the Department of Justice announced a lawsuit targeting landlords’ Texas-based revenue management software. They claim this technology is driving up rents, rather than acknowledging the broader issues at play.
Kudos to Attorney General Paxton for not jumping on board with this federal action, unlike some other liberal state attorneys general. He understands that this lawsuit would undermine Texas laws and make our housing problems worse.
Blaming a Texas software company for high rents is just off the mark. Every industry in the U.S., including the federal government with its toll roads, public utilities, federal interest rates, and healthcare payments, uses some sort of software algorithm to guide their decisions in pricing.
It might be convenient for Harris to blame a Texas tech company for national rent issues, but that’s no excuse for stifling free-market business management tools. Texans are struggling not because of business technology, but because of the Biden-Harris administration’s policies that have driven up construction, electricity, and energy costs.
It is not a coincidence that by May 2022, single-family rents in Dallas-Plano-Irving jumped 13.7% from the previous year—just one year into the Biden-Harris administration. Austin-Round Rock saw a 13.4% increase, while Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land faced a 9.7% rise. Meanwhile, the algorithmic software Harris is targeting has been around since 1998—long before these recent rent hikes.
Attorney General Paxton’s approach makes sense—why should Texas hand over more control to the feds to fix a problem they created? Our state has shown it can handle these issues better than Washington.
Instead of federal overreach, Texas is tackling these challenges by making it easier for communities to build more housing, which helps keep rents affordable. That’s why, over the past year, rental prices in Texas have started to fall. More supply means lower rents.
Texas’s success shows the power of free markets and local control in solving problems and boosting economic prosperity. We don’t need federal grants, subsidies, or a takeover of our housing policies, which would only slow our progress and hurt those it claims to help.
Ironically, Harris’s campaign promises “we won’t go back” while pushing failed Soviet-style price control policies that have historically undermined progress. From Nixon’s price controls causing gas shortages to San Francisco’s rent control reducing rental availability by 15%, price controls have a poor track record.
Thankfully, Ken Paxton is dedicated to keeping Texas on a path of growth and opportunity, avoiding past economic mistakes. His leadership ensures our state remains strong regardless of the November election’s outcome, and that’s something all Texans can be proud of.
Dale Huls is a Texas-based Air Force veteran and conservative activist. He served as a Republican Party precinct chair and election judge for 10 years in Harris County. He is also a former candidate for the Texas House of Representatives who was endorsed by Attorney General Ken Paxton.