The gov't still get their money through higher property taxes. This has been a problem recently, as property values and accessed values have gone up dramatically in the past few years. Lots of this money gets funneled up to the state to help pay for programs.

It's gotten bad enough that the state is looking to cap property tax growth, much like California currently does. We have a good idea how that will turn out. And it will likely stress budgets enough to require implementing state income tax, or raising sales tax (maybe both).

https://www.star-telegram.com/news/business/growth/article21...

I don't know, I was thinking maybe because Houston is a large trade/energy hub. But maybe that is also too simple. Probably a lot of factors