The portion of Clear Lake City that was Houston's extraterritorial jurisdiction (ETJ) was annexed by the city of Houston in 1977 despite a grass-roots campaign by its residents to stop it. Their slogan was "Free The Clear Lake 25,000!" Lawsuits over the annexation resulted in the conversion of Houston city government from at-large city councilmen to the current-day nine district and five at-large council seats. The 1977 annexation added of land to the Houston city limits. At the time, under a Texas law established in 1963, a city of more than 100,000 people could unilaterally annex an unincorporated area. Proponents stated that the annexation allowed Houston to maintain a healthy tax base which would therefore keep taxes low and stimulate economic growth. This meant Texas cities would avoid the fates of Northern cities, locked in by other cities, which saw their tax bases relocate out of their respective city limits.