‘Friday Night Lights’ Bonds Lose as Low Taxes Win Over Football

It was another Election Day rematch between football and small government on local ballots all across Texas. Small government won.

Voters around the Lone Star State, in big city suburbs and more rural enclaves, last week shot down at least nine proposals to build or renovate stadiums and other athletic facilities.

High-school football is a popular Texas pastime, as dramatized by the NBC television series Friday Night Lights, and for years some school districts there plowed taxpayer money into multi-million dollar stadiums rivaling those on college campuses.

But since 2019, when a state law was enacted to give residents more ...