Texas Tomorrow

San Antonio hasn’t raised its property tax rate in 33 years.  But with a $172 million deficit looming, a September 17 council vote ahead, and projections showing the shortfall could grow to $264 million by 2031, the city is nearing a choice it can’t avoid: raise the rate by the maximum allowed without an election or cut more than $130 million in services. This Texas Tomorrow episode uses San Anton...

The homestead exemption investigation is producing results. The Harris County Appraisal District is reviewing 19 Doors Holdings properties, and Austin’s St. Tropez Rentals LLC just had its illegal exemption flagged as a vendor error and corrected. But the loopholes that made all of this possible are still on the books, and Senator Bettencourt is warning cheaters that the attorney general may be co...

Across the state, property owners are claiming ineligible exemptions, but who covers the cost?

With no zoning powers, counties are coming up with unique ways to stop emerging data centers. Will they work?

Texas' eighth-largest city is on track to become one of the first major U.S. cities to run short of water — and it just spent 15 hours deciding not to decide, while its mayor fights removal in court.

If loneliness kills as many men as smoking, why isn't a single Texas county treating it like the public health emergency it is?

Highland Park has left DART—the first city to do so in 37 years. Might this start a trend?

Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, Fort Worth, Austin, El Paso, Arlington — all running deficits at the same time. What's breaking Texas city budgets, and why isn't anyone connecting the dots?

Texas just approved the largest school bond in state history and barely anyone showed up to vote. What does it mean when billions ride on single-digit turnout?

There are thousands of rental homes Texans will never own—because corporations do. And a new $4 billion deal is set to add even more to their portfolios.

Texas just learned it needs $174 billion to keep the water running, more than double what it projected four years ago. Corpus Christi may run dry by next year. So where did all the planning go?

Your county judge can order you to evacuate, override your mayor, commandeer your property, and govern by executive order — all without a single vote from anyone else. Did you know that?

Who gets to pass an ordinance in Texas, or more importantly, who gets the final say? Not always who you think.

Houston City Council just passed an ordinance limiting when HPD can contact ICE. Chicago, Denver, New York, and Long Beach have done the same thing.

Houston is spending half a billion dollars to look good for the World Cup and Arlington invested millions. Texas loves hosting the world, but is the mega-event economy a public investment or a public shakedown?

As Corpus Christi faces an emergency that could impact the rest of us, are its local officials able to meet the challenge?

Governor Abbott just launched a statewide Jobs Council but the skilled trades shortage it's supposed to fix is already reshaping what gets built across the state, and what doesn’t, so will it help?

Citizens can hold their local government accountable by reporting them, a good tool or bureaucratic Battlefield?

One of Texas's biggest industrial ports needs 60 million gallons of new water a day by November what happens if they miss?

Seats are emptying and schools are closing but do we know exactly why?

-New UT Poll Shows Tight AG Race, Close Senate Contest -Hood County Rejects Data Center Moratorium, Pressures DA on Appraisal District Audit -Texas Education Freedom Accounts Hit 130,000 Applications at Midway Mark

Over 400 data centers are operating or under construction in Texas. The $500 billion Stargate project alone will draw enough power to light 750,000 homes. And yet the state's water plan doesn't include a single line for data center demand, call that an accountability gap.

Texas school districts are spending hundreds of millions without board approval, did the state make it easier to do more of it? If your school district spent $870 million without board approval, would you call that efficiency or a governance failure? That's not hypothetical, it’s happening right now.

School board meetings have become battlegrounds—but most parents still have no idea how much power these elected officials actually hold over their kids' education.

Texas local governments come in all sizes, but is there a "right" size?