Following SpaceX’s arrival in 2014, another large technology company is eyeing South Texas, once known as the poorest area in Texas  McALLEN — A South Texas community once cited as the poorest in Texas is courting an Austin-based defense technology startup that promises to bring 10,000 jobs over 10 years, more than SpaceX’s initial promise of 300 back in 2014  The Cameron County commissioners court approved a $211 million tax break for Saronic Technologies in hopes that the company will select the Port of Brownsville for its $3.2 billion naval shipyard called Port Alpha. The tax break would come in the form of a 95% tax abatement agreement over 20 years. view article

Homeowners in Lake Travis ISD may see an increase in their tax bill this year, despite the district proposing a lower tax rate.   The LTISD board of trustees approved the fiscal year 2026-27 budget and discussed the proposed tax rate at a June 17 meeting. The budget was approved at $152.7 million, $1.8 million higher than the FY 2025-26 budget.   “That's mainly attributed to the increase in state recapture to capture that property value growth while our enrollment is decreasing slightly,” Assistant Superintendent of Business Services Pam Sanchez said. view article

Wylie ISD trustees approved the district’s 2026-27 budget during their June 16 meeting, adopting a spending plan that projects a nearly $15 million deficit while providing pay increases for teachers and staff and maintaining the current tax rate. view article

Tarrant Appraisal District board members are split on whether to consider changing the property appraisal process after acknowledging that the current plan delivered less equitable tax bills to homeowners. The board discussed the possibility of undoing the reappraisal plan they voted to continue using in 2025 that switched residential property appraisals to a two-year schedule instead of the typical annual plan while capping tax increases at 5% per cycle. The June 10 discussion came nearly a month after it became public that 190,000 to 200,000 homeowners potentially received overvalued property tax bills. No action was taken during the meeting to change the reappraisal plan. “Everybody’s talking about the reappraisal plan, and I felt that if we didn’t get this on the agenda to have an open discussion based on the information that we’ve received, that it would be a slap in the face to the public,” TAD board member Gloria Pena said. “I felt like the attention needed to be given.”  view article

A proposed data center in Angelina County will occupy more than 1,000 acres outside of Lufkin. The county judge says there's nothing he can do to stop it.  LUFKIN — Dozens of East Texans converged at an Angelina County Commissioners Court meeting Tuesday to demand answers regarding a proposed data center project on State Highway 103 East.  The project proposed by Denver-based AmpZ Champion Data Center Holdings has drawn considerable ire in Lufkin over the last few months. Residents worry about potential light, sound, air and water pollution, as well as how this project will affect property values. view article

The proclamation will order state lawmakers to convene in Tallahassee starting June 1.  Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on May 27 called for a special legislative session to pass his plan to exempt homeowners from paying property taxes on their permanent residence.  The Republican governor revealed his plans to sign a proclamation that would require state lawmakers to convene in Tallahassee and discuss his “Save Our Homes” proposal starting on June 1.  “Taxing something that you own repeatedly, which is a property tax, is the worst way to do taxation,” DeSantis said in a news conference on May 27. view article

As property values in Bexar County stagnate, school districts are reevaluating how far they can stretch their own tax rates to pay for items such as new schools, renovations, technology upgrades — the list goes on.  On average, Bexar County homes decreased in value by 0.11% for 2026. Last year, values increased by 2.1%.   For months now, San Antonio Independent School District has been weighing a November bond election as it deals with several aging buildings, demands for upgraded technology and state safety mandates such as having three-point seatbelts on all school buses by 2029.  view article

Texas voters approved Senate Bills 4 and 23 in the November election, lowering property taxes by increasing homestead exemptions, but some school districts in El Paso County say the state’s plan to replace the lost revenue is falling short and could have long-term consequences.  “There were two. It was SB4 and SB23. And what those did is that it lowered everybody’s property tax,” state Representative Vince Perez, said.  Both measures raised the homestead exemption, meaning homeowners will pay taxes on a smaller portion of their property value. view article

As property values in Bexar County stagnate, school districts are reevaluating how far they can stretch their own tax rates to pay for items such as new schools, renovations, technology upgrades —Texas lawmakers are in the midst of their 89th legislative session, and lowering property taxes is one of the main goals Gov. Greg Abbott has directed them to address.  “We must deliver meaningful property tax cuts this session,” said Abbott in his keynote speech at the Texas Public Policy Foundation’s recent Texas Policy Summit in Austin, just weeks after he declared property tax relief one of his emergency items for state lawmakers this session.  For those who closely watch Texas politics — or even just those focused on their own annual property tax bill — this may seem like déjà vu. After months of wrangling during 2023’s regular session and a special session, Abbott signed an $18 billion property tax bill that was touted as a major win for Texas homeowners. But the results didn’t meet lawmakers’ expectations. In the years since, some Texans still saw increases in taxes from local municipalities who said they needed to make up for lost revenue. view article

Texas lawmakers are in the midst of their 89th legislative session, and lowering property taxes is one of the main goals Gov. Greg Abbott has directed them to address.  “We must deliver meaningful property tax cuts this session,” said Abbott in his keynote speech at the Texas Public Policy Foundation’s recent Texas Policy Summit in Austin, just weeks after he declared property tax relief one of his emergency items for state lawmakers this session.  For those who closely watch Texas politics — or even just those focused on their own annual property tax bill — this may seem like déjà vu. After months of wrangling during 2023’s regular session and a special session, Abbott signed an $18 billion property tax bill that was touted as a major win for Texas homeowners. But the results didn’t meet lawmakers’ expectations. In the years since, some Texans still saw increases in taxes from local municipalities who said they needed to make up for lost revenue. view article

Texas’ Supreme Court has ruled that a lawsuit challenging the South Texas Independent School District’s decades‑old property tax may move forward, holding that taxpayers have standing to sue.  The dispute stems from a special property tax in Willacy County that was originally approved by voters in 1974 to fund the Rio Grande Rehabilitation District for Handicapped Persons. In 1983, the rehabilitation district unilaterally repurposed itself into South Texas ISD, a regional magnet school district, and continued collecting the same tax without ever returning to voters for approval of the new purpose. view article

On Feb. 22, Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced Tesla’s would open an engineering headquarters in California. On Twitter, Tesla representatives clarified on Feb. 24 that the main headquarters would remain in Travis County.  In late 2021, Musk relocated Tesla’s headquarters to the 10 million-square-foot Giga Texas facility located in southeastern Travis County.  During the Feb. 22 press conference, Musk did not present a timeline for the move, share any information behind the move or provide any information on how this would affect the Travis County facility.   Travis County representatives said they had no further information to share on the topic as of Feb. 22 at 5:30 p.m. view article

Register for a live Zoom event at 1 p.m. on May 1, where you can ask experts about the property tax appraisal process. view article

The board will meet at 5:30 p.m. June 26 in the district administration building at 200 College Street, Hutto. Outgoing Chief Financial Officer Caleb Steed said in an April 23 board meeting that the district is proposing the same tax rate as the 2025-26 financial year, $0.7552 per $100 of valuation to fund maintenance and operations and $0.45 per $100 of valuation to service district debts, such as bonds. The total tax rate proposed will be $1.2052 per $100 of valuation, but that could go down, Steed said, if property values increase. view article

Supporters say the bill is needed to protect energy-producing regions like Texas’ Permian Basin from regulatory uncertainty tied to pollution drifting across borders. 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