Association of Water Board Directors
The Association of Water Board Directors (or AWBD) is a statewide organization of MUDs and similar water districts. AWBD-member districts provide high-quality water, sewer, and drainage services to millions of Texans.
- MUDs and water districts maintain the “Texas Miracle” by serving new growth and development with needed public infrastructure.
- More than 1,500 people move to Texas every day.
- God bless Texas! Our economy is strong. Our job market is robust. People want to make Texas their home.
- New and existing Texans needs places to live.
- Our economy would stumble and fail if we were not able to build houses to keep up with population growth.
- New businesses and new houses require new systems of water, sewage, drainage, and roads.
- Most cities and counties are either unable or unwilling to pay for the infrastructure to serve new communities. Existing residents, who have paid the bill for their utilities, aren’t interested in paying for the cost of growth.
MUDs allow “Growth to Pay for Itself.”
- In a MUD, the taxpayers who use the water, sewer, drainage, and road infrastructure of the MUD, pay for that infrastructure.
- Existing taxpayers do NOT pay MUD taxes. The larger population of a city or county do NOT pay MUD taxes.
- Only those who benefit, pay.
- MUD residents “vote with their feet” by choosing to buy a home in a MUD, in full knowledge of the MUD and its tax.
- Why shouldn’t consumers have this choice?
MUD communities are desirable places to live. In fact, many MUD communities are the most desirable in Texas and in the nation.
- Home purchasers in MUDs are made fully aware of the MUD and the details of the MUD’s taxes and bonds, both current and future.
- Nothing is done in secret; nothing is hidden.
- A MUD resident who says they didn’t know about their MUD taxes has simply forgotten the information they received and the paperwork they executed.
- MUDs produce vast amounts of public information and make it available to their residents and the public on the Internet and otherwise.
- Remember: a MUD taxpayer pays only for the infrastructure they use. The cost of that infrastructure can be paid up front, in the form of a much higher purchase price, or over time, through a MUD tax. But in no scenario is the infrastructure free.
MUDs are highly regulated – more so than any other form of local government in Texas – by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.
Without MUDs:
- THERE WOULD BE VASTLY FEWER HOMES IN TEXAS.
- THOSE FEWER HOMES WOULD COST MUCH MORE.
- THOUSANDS OF TEXANS WOULD NOT QUALIFY TO PURCHASE THESE HIGHER-PRICED HOMES.
- THE ASSESSED VALUES ON EXISTING HOMES WOULD SKYROCKET, INCREASING PROPERTY TAXES ON ALL TEXANS.
- TEXAS WOULD HAVE A HOUSING CRISIS.
If cities won’t or can’t support growth and new development and counties won’t or can’t support growth and new development, who will?
What would it mean to the Texas Miracle for the supply of affordably-priced housing to dry up?
Texas has the most successful housing market in the nation. MUDs are a key ingredient in this success.
MUDs are Good for Texas!
The Association of Water Board Directors (or AWBD) is a statewide organization of MUDs and similar water districts. AWBD-member districts provide high-quality water, sewer, and drainage services to millions of Texans.
