Lawmakers propose energy bill relief for Texans with $4 billion legislation
The allocation is part of a plan to add $12 billion to the current budget. It hasn’t been approved yet by the House. Full Story
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![Marfa is covered with snow on Thursday, Feb. 18, 2021. The temperature dropped to 7 degrees on Friday morning.]()
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Texas renters got unprecedented help during the pandemic. The Legislature is unlikely to extend it.
Lawmakers will decide whether to keep protections that shielded tenants from eviction — or to ban them. Full Story
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![A leasing sign outside Garden Court Apartments in north Midland, where rent for a one-bedroom can run as high as $850 per month. Leasing signs were an uncommon sight in Midland as recently as 2014, when apartment occupancy nearly hit 100 percent. It's fallen to about 80 percent now, according to the Permian Basin Apartment Association.]()
Credit: Jerod Foster for The Texas Tribune -
Legislature has little appetite to fund Ken Paxton’s settlement with whistleblowers
A lack of lawmaker support jeopardizes the attorney general’s $3.3 million settlement, which would resolve a lawsuit alleging Paxton fired high-ranking deputies who accused him of misconduct. Full Story
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![Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton gave a speech in the Senate chamber during his swearing-in ceremony on Jan. 10, 2023. This is Paxton's third term in the office.]()
Credit: Bob Daemmrich for The Texas Tribune -
Search the newly updated Government Salaries Explorer
The Texas Tribune’s database of Texas state employees’ compensation is updated to represent salaries as of Feb. 1. It includes detailed data for the 113 agencies in state government and positions at each of those agencies. Full Story
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![Government Salaries Explorer]()
Credit: Photo Illustration by Ben Hasson / Texas Tribune -
How could Texas spend its record $32.7 billion surplus?
If Texas’ budget surplus were distributed directly to Texans, it could pay for 12 years of school lunches, seven months of rent or 11,000 miles of travel. Here’s how to put the big number into perspective. Full Story
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![An illustration of people gathered.]()
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House unveils bill giving state authority to “repel” and return migrants crossing from Mexico
House Bill 20 by state Rep. Matt Schaefer, R-Tyler, would test the boundaries of the state’s ability to enforce immigration law, which courts have historically ruled falls under federal purview. Full Story
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![Department of Public Safety agent arrest an undocumented migrant after he was caught on private property as part of Operation Lone Star in Kinney County near Brackettville, on Nov. 9, 2021.]()
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Texas Senate’s priority bills on higher ed would end tenure, diversity policies
The bills are part of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s list of priorities and, if passed as filed, could have profound impacts on how Texas universities recruit top faculty and other employees. Full Story
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![University of Houston students back on campus in Houston on Tuesday, Sept. 5, 2017, after Hurricane Harvey.]()
Credit: Michael Stravato for The Texas Tribune -
SXSW EDU panelists say the only solution to school safety is to address gun policy and mental health, not one or the other
Gun policy reform is the best way to address school safety, according to experts on a panel in Austin. They also cautioned against doubling down on surveillance technology. Full Story
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![Children arrive to Flores Middle School for the first day of classes in Uvalde on Sept. 6, 2022.]()
Credit: Evan L’Roy/The Texas Tribune -
At a Korean community center in Houston, the struggle immigrant Texans face with language barriers is clear
Texas largely conducts its state business in English and Spanish. It falls to interpreters like Terry Yun to help people scale the wall dividing them from crucial government services. Full Story
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![Terry S. Yun listens and provides translating services for a couple at the Korean Community Center in the Spring Branch district of Houston, TX, on Thursday, Feb. 23, 2023.]()
Credit: Annie Mulligan for The Texas Tribune -
Houston ISD braces for possible state takeover
Parents, teachers and retired HISD employees were among the many rallying Friday against an imminent midsemester district takeover by the Texas Education Agency. Full Story
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![Laurel Hays holds a poster against the Texas Education Agency (TEA) takeover of Houston Independent School District (HISD) during a press conference regarding HISD's imminent state takeover in Houston, on Friday, March 3, 2023.]()
Credit: Joseph Bui for The Texas Tribune -
Texas legislative leaders — Dan Patrick, Dade Phelan — jab each other’s priorities in dueling speeches
During dueling speeches to a conservative think tank in Austin, state House Speaker Dade Phelan and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who have a history of animus, split over property tax relief, criminal justice reform and school choice. Full Story
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![House Speaker Dade Phelan, left, and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick.]()
Credit: The Texas Tribune -
Texas House’s property tax bill calls for $17 billion in cuts, tighter appraisal cap
Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan’s proposal reveals the different roads the Texas House and Senate want to take on property taxes — and the fight that might emerge between the two chambers this session. Full Story
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![Construction workers build houses in the new Teravista neighborhood in Georgetown on May 18, 2016.]()
Credit: Shelby Knowles for The Texas Tribune -
Plurality of Texas voters say they support school voucher-like program
The poll from the University of Texas at Austin, released Thursday, found a plurality of voters support redirecting tax revenue to help parents pay to school their kids outside the traditional public education system. Full Story
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![Esperanza Alejo, Cardenas' TA, has her students present their drawings to Cardenas' class using a projector on Apr. 21, 2022. After Cardenas' class split into two different rooms, one managed by Cardenas and her substitute, Nancy Lopez, and the other by her TA, Esperanza Alejo, Cardenas still planned all the curriculum. The students do the same activities and have the same lessons in both classrooms. Some of the lessons, like the drawing vocabulary activity (NEED CLARIFICATION ON THIS ACTIVITY), are done at the same time with a Google Meets video call bridging the classrooms. "I didn't want them to feel like they were pushed out of my classroom - that they were still just an extension of my classroom," Cardenas said.]()
Credit: Lauren Witte/The Texas Tribune -
Republican Texas lawmakers rally around bill restricting the college sports teams transgender athletes can join
Seventy-seven Texas House Republicans signed on as co-authors to state Rep. Valoree Swanson’s bill extending restrictions on transgender athletes to college sports. Gov. Greg Abbott has expressed support for the legislation, which is also a priority of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick. Full Story
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![Track athletes at a school track meet.]()
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Business and legislative leaders push to replace expired tax break with a new one
Business groups warned lawmakers that Texas could lose business to other states without something to replace the so-called Chapter 313 tax break, which gave some companies big breaks on school taxes. Full Story
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![The Texas Capitol in Austin on Oct. 19, 2021.]()
Credit: Evan L'Roy for The Texas Tribune -
Gus Mutscher, Texas House speaker who resigned amid the Sharpstown stock fraud scandal, dies at 90
Mutscher served as speaker from 1969 to 1972 before leaving amid the pay-for-play scandal, though he was later cleared on appeal. Full Story
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![Former Texas House Speaker Gus Mutscher.]()
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DPS sent at least 3,000 driver’s licenses to organized crime group targeting Asian Texans
A Chinese crime operation bypassed the password clues of Texas.gov by using stolen identity information to fraudulently obtain replacement driver’s licenses. Full Story
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![Steve McCraw, Department of Public Safety Director, speaks at a press conference with Gov. Greg Abbott and nine other governors regarding the southern border at Anzalduas Park in Mission on Oct. 6, 2021.]()
Credit: Eddie Gaspar/The Texas Tribune -
A Texas lawmaker wants voters to decide whether legislators deserve a raise
State Rep. Gina Hinojosa, D-Austin, has proposed an amendment to the state constitution to raise legislator pay and tie it to teachers’ pay, saying it would give lawmakers a living wage and allow a broader range of Texans to serve. Full Story
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![State Rep. Gina Hinojosa, D-Austin, speaks at a Texas House Progressive Caucus press conference at the Capitol on Sept. 20, 2021.]()
Credit: Eddie Gaspar/The Texas Tribune -
Texas superintendent resigns after student finds his gun in school bathroom
The incident comes as lawmakers debate how to make schools safer after the Uvalde massacre and favor measures like arming more educators. Full Story
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![A M&P Shield handgun, small enough to be ideal for conceal carry, in Austin on April 23, 2021.]()
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Gov. Greg Abbott says Texas will revamp economic development program after property tax incentive expires
Abbott told business leaders in Arlington on Wednesday that Texas is already suffering from the end of the tax-break program, recently losing a “massive” computer chip factory to New York. Full Story
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![Gov. Greg Abbott speaks at a Site Selection’s Governor’s Cup award announcement at the Texas Governor's Mansion in Austin on March 1, 2022.]()
Credit: Eddie Gaspar/The Texas Tribune