It's likely to be operational by summer 2028.  With principals announcing an agreement on a final investment Monday, construction will soon begin on a 450-mile pipeline connecting critical natural gas sources from the Permian Basin in West Texas to the Katy area in the Gulf Coast region of the state.  view article

Celina ISD officials set the tax rate for the 2025-26 school year budget. The district’s board of trustees approved the district’s tax rate of $1.2089 per $100 of assessed value during an Aug. 18 board meeting. This rate is just under a 3% reduction in taxes for the CISD community, Chief of Business Resources Melissa Kelly said.  Last year’s rate, which was approved by voters last November in a tax rate election, was $1.2358 per $100 valuation. view article

ABILENE, Texas — Abilene ISD taxpayers will be seeing a decrease in their local school tax rate. However, based on how people vote during the November election on Proposition A, that will determine how much this decrease will be.  RELATED | Abilene ISD seeks voter approval for $10M funding boost in November election  AISD Board of Trustees voted last week to call a Voter-Approved Tax Ratification Election also known as VATRE. view article

The Boyd ISD board of trustees is looking to keep its current tax rate the same for the 2025-26 fiscal year. During Monday’s school board meeting, trustees approved a proposed tax rate of $0.8942 per $100 valuation — the same amount approved for FY 2024-25 last August. Of the amount, $0.6692 will be used for maintenance and operation, while the remaining $0.225 will be earmarked for interest and sinking to pay bonded debt. view article

LHISD has lowered the tax rate 37 cents over six years. Prop A would add 6 pennies back to the tax rate.  Prop A adds funding for teacher salary increases, instructional programs, and extracurricular programs.  State and federal officials have cut education funding. At the same time, inflation has driven up LHISD operating costs such as utilities, fuel, and insurance.  LHISD has already cut $2 million in expenses. If Prop A does not pass, LHISD will have to make additional cuts, which may include up to 10 percent of our teaching staff. view article

COLLEGE STATION (Texas Real Estate Research Center) – Texas’ housing market slowed in February after persistently low mortgage interest rates contributed to record sales in the existing-home sector the previous month. "Sales activity was greatly hindered by February’s unseasonably wintery weather that caused power outages and water disruptions across the state," said Dr. Luis Torres, research economist for the Texas Real Estate Research Center at Texas A&M University. Existing-homes sold through the Texas Multiple Listing Services declined 16 percent from January, drawing even with year-ago levels. Despite slower sales, the state’s existing-home inventory fell below 1.5 months in February. The number of new listings that hit the market declined for the second straight month to their lowest reading since April 2020, when the state was under a stay-at-home mandate. view article

Count on the Texas Legislature to come up with a painfully complicated and inefficient way to repeal a painfully complicated and inefficient tax. Lawmakers deserve praise for targeting the Texas Franchise Tax, but their methods are unsound. The franchise tax, also called the margins or business tax, ranks consistently as one of the worst taxes anywhere in the country. It was the convoluted response to the Texas Supreme Court declaring the public school finance system unconstitutional. Lawmakers had to lower property taxes to comply with the court order, so to find replacement funds they rewrote the franchise tax, what businesses pay for the privilege to operate in our great state. view article

The Dallas school board Thursday night voted against putting a tax ratification election before voters this fall. The proposed 13-cent tax hike would have given the district $100 million to fund early childhood education and early college high school programs. The district also wanted to expand a program that pays extra money to top teachers who take jobs in some of the district’s toughest schools. view article

Trustees of the Wylie Independent School District proposed a tax rate of $1.13 per $100 of property value for the 2016-17 fiscal year — a tax cut of 2.4 cents — and added more money to the proposed budget for teachers' salaries during Monday's regular board meeting. Trustees conducted their third of three workshops for the 2016-17 budget of $32.340 million and set a special meeting for Monday, Aug. 29, at 6:30 p.m. to receive comments from the public on the budget and tax rate and then consider approval. view article

School trustees in Kilgore began their budget-writing season Monday with an overview of what is and isn’t known about financing the 2014-15 school year. view article