It’s election season, which means Texas local governments are, once again, asking voters to approve huge quantities of new debt. In fact, according to the Bond Review Board’s bond election database, Texas cities, counties, school districts, and special districts are seeking voter-approval for 231 separate propositions, which are worth a combined $30.86 billion. If these bonds...
A new bill aimed at streamlining state agency rules and regulations has received approval from both chambers and is headed to the governor’s desk for signing. Among other things, Senate Bill 14 will create the Texas Regulatory Efficiency Office (TREO) “to provide critical assistance and direction in identifying rules that are no longer necessary or...
Later today, the Texas House will take up and consider its version of the 2026-27 state budget, which promises to be quite a long and interesting affair consider that almost 400 amendments were filed. In anticipation of that debate, it’s helpful to see where things stand numbers-wise. For its part, the Texas House’s proposed budget...
The Texas Education Agency (TEA) has just updated its superintendent salary database, revealing some eye-popping new detail about public executive compensation. According to TEA’s latest salary data, there were approximately 1,200 superintendent positions in Texas during the 2024-25 school year, which were either filled in a full-time or part-time capacity. For full-time administrators, the median...
Like other Texas school districts, Leander ISD (LISD) is in the process of rightsizing its workforce and budget after a decade-long period of unguarded growth. As reported in greater detail by the Austin American-Statesman: “The Leander school district announced plans to slash more than 200 campus-level staff positions—including nearly 150 teachers — and $3 million...
Every year, local governments spend millions hiring lobbyists in the hope of influencing state-level policymaking, both before, during, and after each legislative session. These hired guns generally fall into 1 of 3 categories: external lobbyists (i.e. contract lobbyists); internal lobbyists (i.e. intergovernmental relations (IGR) staff); and publicly-funded pro-government associations (i.e. Texas Municipal League (TML) ,...
Every year, local governments spend millions hiring lobbyists in the hope of influencing state-level policymaking, both before, during, and after each legislative session. These hired guns generally fall into 1 of 3 categories: external lobbyists (i.e. contract lobbyists); internal lobbyists (i.e. intergovernmental relations (IGR) staff); and publicly-funded pro-government associations (i.e. Texas Municipal League (TML) ,...
Every year, local governments spend millions hiring lobbyists in the hope of influencing state-level policymaking, both before, during, and after each legislative session. These hired guns generally fall into 1 of 3 categories: external lobbyists (i.e. contract lobbyists); internal lobbyists (i.e. intergovernmental relations (IGR) staff); and publicly-funded pro-government associations (i.e. Texas Municipal League (TML), Texas...
On Sunday, Governor Greg Abbott delivered the State of the State address, covering a wide range of critical issues, like border security, school choice, and cybersecurity. However, for many tax-weary Texans, his remarks on the property tax were perhaps the most welcome. As he has done on prior occasions, Governor Abbott urged the Legislature to...
In 2023, the Texas Legislature passed a historic tax relief package to lower school taxes, primarily through tax rate compression and an increase in the homestead exemption. Together, these measures were supposed “to cut the average homeowner’s tax bill by roughly $1,300 per year,” thereby providing much-needed relief to those laboring under the twin ills...
The Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts has published a new report offering interesting insights and details on local property tax trends, with a particular emphasis on “tax rate and value information for tax years 2022 and 2023.” This information has the potential to illuminate certain aspects of the hotly anticipated property tax relief and reform...
The next Texas Legislature began on January 14, 2025, giving state-level policymakers their next best opportunity to revisit property tax relief and property tax reform. The former refers to lowering tax bills while the latter speaks to keeping them down. This column concerns itself with the latter, tax reform, and offers several suggestions to protect...