Texas taxes

New laws range from school vouchers and water infrastructure funding to a ban on city and county-funded abortion travel funds.

Texas cities and counties have already had their budgets compressed by a variety of factors, including the state's current property tax limits.

The GOP tax and spending bill raises the child tax credit from $2,000 to $2,200, adjusts it annually for inflation, and enshrines it permanently into U.S. tax code. However, another provision requires that the child and both parents all have Social Security numbers.

One of the most highly debated bills in Texas' 2025 legislative session has passed both chambers and heads to Gov. Greg Abbott for his signature. House Bill 2 provides $8.5 billion for the state's public school system.

Senators will hold a hearing Thursday on their counterproposal to the House's school funding bill. House Democrats and public education advocates have criticized the upper chamber for not moving faster to advance the legislation.

One proposal would allow the attorney general to sue cities and freeze sales tax revenues for up to 90 days.

The sweeping legislation creates Education Savings Accounts, which allow parents to use state tax dollars toward private education costs. With $1 billion in initial funding, Texas' program is the largest day 1 plan of its kind in the nation.

The White House is expected to unveil a budget proposal that will, reportedly, aim to eliminate Head Start. The federally-funded program is designed to promote school readiness among young children from low-income families and serves more than 65,000 kids across Texas.

Some Texas legislators may be done questioning the merits of education savings accounts as it moves to a vote in the State House, but voters aren't. Model programs in other states are showing rural voters could stand to lose the most, and they're preparing to do the math on election day.