Texas Tomorrow

Texas local governments must balance their budgets. Some do it with land sales, rainy-day money, utility transfers, and other dollars that may not be there next year.

Four San Antonio-area school districts are asking voters for more operating money this November. What happens if either side of the ballot fails?

Harris County’s appraisal district acknowledged a control failure and promised corrections; the next test is whether the public can verify the fix.

If human reviewers fade away and government work product is AI-produced, who will be held responsible for when things go wrong?

Most voters will not see their November local ballot until October. But cities, counties, school districts, and special districts are making the real decisions now: what gets ordered onto the ballot by August 17.

Houston awarded $579 million to certified minority-, women-, and small-business contractors last year. Now, a federal judge has blocked the city from using race in those contracting decisions. What happens next?

A private company built a 100,000-camera surveillance grid, wired it so federal authorities can access it, and operated it for more than a year without a license. Is that okay?

Texas home prices are still climbing in some of the state’s most expensive communities; can the property‑tax system keep up without shifting costs onto everyone else?

The places seeing the biggest dollar jumps tell us something important about who pays for local government.

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 coming for them next.

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?