AUSTIN (Nexstar) — Texas voters approved a generational investment into water infrastructure Tuesday night after approving an additional $20 billion for the Texas Water Fund over the next two decades. However, the Texas Water Development Board (TWDB), which manages the fund, said the money will not be available until fall 2029.
The initiative was placed on the ballot as Proposition 4. More than 70% of the vote, a little more than 2 million people, gave the thumbs up to move forward with the investment. The money will be used to improve aging water infrastructure across the state and help fund new sources of water as the state population continues to grow.
“Texas is facing more than $200 billion in wastewater and flood infrastructure needs in the next 50 years,” Sarah Kirkle, the director of policy and legislative affairs at the Texas Water Association, said. “So this $20 billion is a really important first step.”
In 2023 Texas water systems cleaned and produced 1.17 trillion gallons of water. Of that, 158 billion gallons were lost to leaks – 13% of all the water produced, according to the Texas Water Development Board. The TWDB estimates the value of that water loss at over $326 million.
Kirkle said water rates continue to climb across the state as water utilities and municipalities try to fund costly and complex wastewater and water projects. “By using the state’s interest rate reduction programs and by leveraging the state’s interest rates, we’re able to see reductions in how much those projects cost to those communities and ultimately to the ratepayers,” Kirkle explained.
The first round of the new funding, a total of $2 billion per biennium, will have to be appropriated by the legislature in the 90th legislative session, which will take place in 2027. Once approved, the Texas Comptroller will transfer the dedicated funds to the water fund in 2028.
Gov. Greg Abbott included investments in water on his list of emergency items for lawmakers for the legislative session. Voters approved that measure along with other priority items on election night.
Voters passed Propositions 11 and 13, which cut property taxes for homeowners, with an additional cut for disabled Texans and those over the age of 65. Proposition 13 increases homestead property tax exemptions from school district property taxes from $100,000 to $140,000. Proposition 11 increases homestead property tax exemptions for elderly and disabled owners. Exemptions would bump from $10,000 to $60,000 of the market value of a homestead.
Combined, the two amendments could help seniors and disabled people across Texas see up to $200,000 in their homestead property tax exemptions.
State Sen. Paul Bettencourt, R – Houston, who authored both tax exemption bills, released a statement Tuesday night following the victory. “These measures will provide much-needed school property tax cuts statewide for Texas taxpayers,” Bettencourt said.
Voters also approved Proposition 1, which aims to boost funding for the Texas State Technical College System (TSTC). The allocated funds could be used to purchase land or instructional equipment, construction or repair of classrooms, and paying off bonds for permanent improvements.
TSTC has 11 campuses across Central and North Texas in addition to online courses. It has programs in fields ranging from automotive engineering to HVAC to welding, and enrolled over 16,000 students in 2021, the most recent year TSTC enrollment data is available.
Supporters of the proposition said it will allow TSTC to expand its operation to help foster a new generation of workers. In a statement, Meagan McCoy Jones, president of McCoy’s Building Supply, said that Prop 1 will allow TSTC to “expand its job training programs.”
Texans also approved Proposition 14, paving the way for a new state agency dedicated to researching dementia.
During the 2025 legislative session, lawmakers passed what would establish the new Dementia Prevention Research Institute of Texas (DPRIT). After receiving overwhelming support in Tuesday’s election, the institute will award $3 billion in grants for the development of dementia treatment and prevention methods over 10 years.
Amid new Texas law, officials worry about flood warning siren ‘confusion’
Nearly two months after Gov. Greg Abbott signed a new law requiring outdoor warning sirens in 30 flood-prone areas — along with a mandate to “regularly test” them — a KXAN investigation uncovered flood-prone Central Texas counties without a single one in place. The state doesn’t track sirens, so we combed through online records and reached out to nearly two dozen Texas counties.
The result: 10 counties currently have no sirens. Most are located in areas the Federal Emergency Management Agency considers to be a relatively moderate to high risk of flooding.
Map graphic of 23 Central Texas counties showing the counties that currently have active outdoor weather sirens and those that do not have sirens. Source: Texas counties (KXAN Interactive/Dalton Huey)
Under Senate Bill 3, only the counties Abbott included in his July disaster declaration are eligible for grants to pay for sirens.
The new state grant money will ensure flood-prone areas, like Kerr County, are “going to have the warning systems they need” by next summer, Abbott said at a September bill signing ceremony with the families of Camp Mystic victims.
“If an event like this does occur again,” Abbott added, “those warning systems will go off in a way that will do everything possible to protect lives.”
On October 2, Martindale Police Chief Tommy Ward pressed a button to activate a warning siren. The loud wailing, emanating from a towering siren next to the city’s water tower, could be heard for miles. It was the first test of the system in years.
For Mayor Laura Sanchez Fowler, who was elected two months before the floods, fixing her city’s two broken and long-ignored sirens became a priority after July 4.
They were once again operational within two weeks, she said. Under the new law, state grant money could help pay for future additions.
Steps away from one siren, under a clear blue sky dotted with clouds, the San Marcos River calmly and gently flowed. Standing next to the water, Ward knows it can rise “at any moment.” That’s why the city is now committed to making a change.
This siren test will continue monthly.
“We’re not going to take any more chances,” Ward said.
But minutes after the test ended, the mayor and police chief received reports that the sirens weren’t heard indoors, at least in some cases.
They also acknowledged another criticism: sirens can be confusing.
In addition to producing a warning signal for floods, the Martindale sirens also sound the alarm for tornadoes. Both alerts were tested back-to-back. The challenge for this community, and others, is making sure people know what the different danger alarm tones mean — and how to react.
“We don’t want someone running out if they hear a tornado warning,” Ward said.
City leaders say the sirens will be used alongside other more modern methods — like mobile text alerts sent to anyone located in the area.
“We need to educate everyone about what those sirens actually mean,” said Dr. Keri Stephens, who teaches disaster and crisis communication at the University of Texas at Austin. “I would say the biggest challenge with them is if people don’t know what that sound sounds like than they can be confused.”
As for how residents can tell the difference between a siren signaling them to shelter in place and one that’s warning them to evacuate, she said, “I’m not aware of any way to do that right now.”
Stephens was recently awarded a federal grant to study why some camps and other locations did evacuate during the floods and whether warning sirens could have played a role. Still, she said while sirens are effective, they are only one part of a “layered” solution that should also include mobile alerts and public education.
Just funding sirens is “not at all” enough, she said.
How Texas misses the mark in tracking kids withdrawn for absences
Tens of thousands of students are withdrawn each year from Texas schools – severed from the public school system for myriad reasons with no public or media attention. But how often are Texas kids withdrawn specifically over absences and truancy?
When KXAN sought records of how frequently that’s happening, we found there is no clear answer because the state isn’t tracking it. Additionally, Texas isn’t collecting exit data on students in 6th grade and below.
Dropouts are not a new issue in Texas. School officials have been wrestling with reducing them for decades and slowly enhancing and tweaking data collection along the way.
The state currently has 19 separate so-called “leaver” codes to classify why students leave the school system. Codes include classifications for students departing to be homeschooled or attend private school; other codes indicate expulsions and deaths. Some codes track tiny numbers of students leaving under certain circumstances, like the 47 students who dropped out because of a medical injury in 2023-24, or the five children of military members — statewide — who graduated outside Texas through an interstate compact that year.
Meanwhile, potentially thousands of withdrawals due to truancy and absenteeism aren’t specifically recorded. Texas lumps those into a sort of catch-all “other” dropout category, labeled code 98, in state data. Districts can use the “other” code for excessive absences, or when they don’t know why a student left, or if the reason doesn’t fit any other codes, according to the Texas Education Agency’s definitions.
Texas schools coded nearly 38,000 student withdrawals with that “other” dropout code in the 2023-24 school year, making it the second most used “leaver” code. Only one code, for graduates, had more students counted under it, with over 382,000, according to TEA’s most recent data.
California voters approve new congressional map in response to Texas redistricting
California voters on Tuesday passed Proposition 50, a redistricting measure that aims to help Democrats pick up five additional congressional seats in next year’s midterms. The measure, which was introduced to counter Republican redistricting efforts in Texas, was passed by a majority of California voters.
The effort behind Prop 50 was spearheaded by California Gov. Gavin Newsom who has emerged as one of the most prominent national critics of President Donald Trump. With the bill’s passage, California is now clear to implement a new congressional map for the next three election cycles.
Following the 2030 U.S. Census, California’s independent redistricting commission will resume drawing the state’s congressional maps.
But the plan is already facing a legal challenge. Less than 24 hours after the vote, a group including the California Republican Party filed a federal lawsuit to block the map.
The lawsuit claims the map approved by voters improperly factors in the race of voters, which would make the plan illegal. The group behind the lawsuit is calling for a temporary restraining order to stop the new Democrat-leaning districts from being implemented before candidates start filing for next year’s primary elections.
The Texas redistricting maps also face legal challenges, which are still ongoing as candidate filing begins in Texas. The filing period for candidates who want to be on the ballot for the March primary started on November 8 and runs through December 8.
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