Texas Tomorrow

When we elect people who exercise poor judgment, we give that judgment a public office. And when things go wrong, other people have to deal with the consequences.

Harris County’s own budget reports a nine-figure deficit for the second straight year, raising a question: Can recurring revenue cover ongoing costs once property sales and other temporary funding sources run out?

Before you vote to let your county borrow money, do you know exactly what you’re approving?
In one county, that question comes with an $817.5 million price tag.

A company under a federal agreement to stop discharging plastic asked Texas regulators to write that same promise into its state permit. TCEQ said no.

Texas officials told lawmakers it can take about 36 hours to put every responding agency on one communications plan. The challenge is not only buying radios; it is deciding who sets standards, pays for the system, and trains responders to use it.

It took exactly 100 signatures to put a brand new taxing entity on the ballot in a Texas county of 402,000 people. Should creating a government be that easy, or is that the point?

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.

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 Antonio as the warning flare for every major Texas city squeezed between the state’s 3.5% revenue cap, rising public-safety and infrastructure costs, and years of deferred budget decisions.

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?

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?

Some jurisdictions are so small they fly under the radar, but these invisible governments shouldn't go without accountability.