Houston earned a D grade in a recent report detailing financial health. Photo courtesy

Compared to many of Texas' big cities, Houston is hardly making the grade fiscally.

That's according to a recent report from nonpartisan, nonprofit think tank Truth in Accounting. Houston earns a D grade for its financial health in Truth in Accounting's new Financial State of the Cites 2021 report, a comprehensive analysis of the fiscal health of the top 75 most populated cities in the U.S.

Based on fiscal year 2019, and therefore reflecting a pre-pandemic economy, the report examines a variety of financial factors to determine each city's "taxpayer burden" or "taxpayer surplus" to determine cities' rankings and grades.

As for the grading, the report may assign a municipal government a C grade if it comes close to meeting its balanced-budget requirement, which is reflected by a small taxpayer burden. An A or B grade means governments have met their balanced-budget requirements and have a taxpayer surplus.

Meanwhile, governments receiving D (Houston) and F grades have not balanced their budgets and have significant taxpayer burdens, according to the report.

Houston had $5.65 billion available to pay $13.16 billion worth of bills. What does that mean to individuals?

"Bottom line: Houston would need $11,600 from each of its taxpayers to pay all of its bills, so it has received a 'D' for its finances," the report nots. "According to Truth in Accounting's grading scale, any government with a Taxpayer Burden between $5,000 D and $20,000 receives a 'D.'"

Elsewhere in Texas, San Antonio is in the best financial shape out all of Texas' four biggest metros, earning a C and ranking 34 out of 75 cities. The report notes that San Antonio entered the pandemic in "mediocre fiscal health," despite the city's debt load of $1.5 billion and a taxpayer burden of $3,500. The report says not only is Austin, scoring a D, is not making the grade fiscally and may be even worse off post-pandemic.

Like Houston and Austin, a slew of other Texas cities earned a D grade in the report, including Dallas (ranked No. 61 out of 75 cities), Fort Worth (No. 54), and El Paso (No. 42).

Arlington (No. 16), with a taxpayer burden of only $200, received a financial grade of C, as did Corpus Christi (No. 19), which had a taxpayer burden of $1,100. The top-ranking Texas city in the report is the Dallas suburb of Plano (No. 9), which received a B grade, reflective of its $2,000 taxpayer surplus.

Despite the distressing news, the Texas metros are not alone in receiving less-than-stellar fiscal grades. In fact, most cities analyzed in the report did not have enough money to pay all their bills. Based on Truth in Accounting's grading methodology, no cities received an A grade, 13 received a B grade, 28 received Cs, 28 received Ds, and six cities received failing grades.

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This article originally ran on CultureMap.

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Axiom Space-tested cancer drug advances to clinical trials

mission critical

A cancer-fighting drug tested aboard several Axiom Space missions is moving forward to clinical trials.

Rebecsinib, which targets a cancer cloning and immune evasion gene, ADAR1, has received FDA approval to enter clinical trials under active Investigational New Drug (IND) status, according to a news release. The drug was tested aboard Axiom Mission 2 (Ax-2) and Axiom Mission 3 (Ax-3). It was developed by Aspera Biomedicine, led by Dr. Catriona Jamieson, director of the UC San Diego Sanford Stem Cell Institute (SSCI).

The San Diego-based Aspera team and Houston-based Axiom partnered to allow Rebecsinib to be tested in microgravity. Tumors have been shown to grow more rapidly in microgravity and even mimic how aggressive cancers can develop in patients.

“In terms of tumor growth, we see a doubling in growth of these little mini-tumors in just 10 days,” Jamieson explained in the release.

Rebecsinib took part in the patient-derived tumor organoid testing aboard the International Space Station. Similar testing is planned to continue on Axiom Station, the company's commercial space station that's currently under development.

Additionally, the drug will be tested aboard Ax-4 under its active IND status, which was targeted to launch June 25.

“We anticipate that this monumental mission will inform the expanded development of the first ADAR1 inhibitory cancer stem cell targeting drug for a broad array of cancers," Jamieson added.

According to Axiom, the milestone represents the potential for commercial space collaborations.

“We’re proud to work with Aspera Biomedicines and the UC San Diego Sanford Stem Cell Institute, as together we have achieved a historic milestone, and we’re even more excited for what’s to come,” Tejpaul Bhatia, the new CEO of Axiom Space, said in the release. “This is how we crack the code of the space economy – uniting public and private partners to turn microgravity into a launchpad for breakthroughs.”