AUSTIN (NEXSTAR) — Texas voters approved a generational investment in 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 administers the fund, said the money will not be available until the fall of 2029.
The initiative was put on the ballot as the fourth proposal. More than 70% of the vote, just over two million people, agreed to go ahead with the investment. The money will be used to improve aging water infrastructure across the state and help fund new water sources as the state’s population continues to grow.
“Texas faces more than $200 billion in wastewater and flood infrastructure needs in the next 50 years,” said Sarah Kirkle, director of policy and legislative affairs at the Texas Water Association. “So the $20 billion is a really important first step.”
In 2023, Texas water systems would be cleaned and produce 1.17 trillion gallons of water. Of that amount, 158 billion gallons were lost to leaks — 13% of the total water produced, according to the Texas Water Development Board. TWDB estimates the value of the water loss at more than $326 million.
Water prices continue to rise across the state as water utilities and municipalities try to finance expensive and complex wastewater and water projects, Kirkle said. “By utilizing state rate reduction programs and by leveraging state interest rates, we can see reductions in the cost of these projects to those communities and ultimately to the taxpayers,” Kirkle explained.
The Legislature will have to allocate the first round of new funding, totaling $2 billion per biennium, in the 90th Legislative Session, which will be held in 2027. Once approved, the Texas Comptroller will transfer the allocated funds to the water fund in 2028.
Gov. Greg Abbott included water investments on his list of emergency items for lawmakers in the legislative session. Voters approved the measure along with other priority items on election night.
Voters passed Propositions 11 and 13, which reduced property taxes on homeowners, with an additional reduction for disabled Texans and those over 65. Proposition 13 increases the home property tax exemption from school district property taxes from $100,000 to $140,000. Proposition 11 increases home property tax breaks for elderly and disabled owners. Exemptions will increase from $10,000 to $60,000 of the market value of the home.
Combined, the two amendments could help seniors and disabled people across Texas get up to $200,000 in tax breaks on their home property.
State Sen. Paul Bettencourt, R-Houston, who authored both tax relief bills, issued a statement Tuesday night after the win. “These measures will provide much-needed statewide school property tax abatements to Texas taxpayers,” Bettencourt said.
Voters also approved Proposition 1, which aims to boost funding for the Texas State Technical College System (TSTC). Allocated funds may be used to purchase land or educational equipment, build or repair classrooms, and pay off bonds to make permanent improvements.
TSTC has 11 campuses in Central and North Texas as well as online courses. It has programs in fields ranging from automotive engineering to HVAC to welding, and has more than 16,000 students enrolled in 2021, TSTC’s final year. Registration data available.
Supporters of the proposal said it would allow TSTC to expand its operations to help care for a new generation of workers. In a statement, Megan McCoy Jones, president of McCoy’s Building Supply, said Proposition 1 will allow TSTC to “expand its job training programs.”
Texans also approved Proposition 14, paving the way for New government agency Dedicated to research into dementia.
During the 2025 legislative session, lawmakers passed what would create 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 to develop dementia treatment and prevention methods over 10 years.
Amid a new Texas law, officials are concerned about flood siren “confusion.”
Nearly two months after Gov. Greg Abbott signed a new law requiring outdoor flood sirens in 30 flood-prone areas — along with a mandate to “test them regularly” — a KXAN investigation revealed flood-prone Central Texas counties without one in place. The state doesn’t track sirens, so we combed online records and reached out to nearly two dozen Texas counties.
Result: 10 counties currently do not have sirens. Most of them are located in areas FEMA considers the flood risk to be relatively moderate to high.
A map of 23 counties in Central Texas showing which counties currently have outdoor weather sirens and which ones do not. Source: Texas Counties (KXAN Interactive/Dalton Huey)
under Senate Bill 3only the counties that Abbott included in his country July disaster declaration Are eligible for grants to pay for the sirens.
New state grant money will ensure that flood-prone areas, like Kerr County, “will have the warning systems they need” by next summer, Abbott said at a bill signing ceremony in September with families of Camp Mystic victims.
“If such an event occurs again, these warning systems will go off in a way that will do everything in their power to protect lives,” Abbott added.
On October 2, Martindale Police Chief Tommy Ward pressed a button to activate the siren. The loud wails emanating from the towering sirens next to the city’s water tower could be heard miles away. This 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 broken and long-ignored sirens became a priority after the Fourth of July.
She said they were back to work within two weeks. Under the new law, state grant money can help pay for future additions.
Just steps from the siren, under a clear blue sky filled with clouds, the San Marcos River was flowing calmly and gently. Standing next to the water, Ward knows he could rise “at any moment.” That’s why the city is now committed to making change.
This siren testing 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 sirens could not be heard inside, at least in some cases.
They also acknowledged another criticism: sirens can be confusing.
In addition to issuing a flood warning signal, Martindale’s sirens also sound a tornado warning. Both alerts were tested sequentially. The challenge for this community, and others, is to make sure people know what the different danger alarm tones mean — and how to respond.
“We don’t want anyone to run away if they hear a tornado warning,” Ward said.
City leaders say sirens will be used alongside other, more modern methods — such as cellphone text alerts sent to anyone in the area.
“We need to educate everyone about what sirens actually mean,” said Dr. Kerry Stevens, who studies disaster and crisis communication at the University of Texas at Austin. “I would say their biggest challenge is that if people don’t know what that sounds like, they can get confused.”
As for how residents can distinguish between sirens telling them to shelter in place and those warning them to evacuate, she said: “I am not aware of any way to do that at the present time.”
Stevens recently received a federal grant to study why some campgrounds and other sites are evacuated during floods and whether sirens could have played a role. However, she said that although sirens are effective, they are only one part of a “layered” solution that must also include cellphone alerts and public education.
She said simply funding the sirens was “not enough at all.”
How Texas misses the mark in tracking kids withdrawn due to absences
Every year, tens of thousands of students are pulled from Texas schools — separated from the public school system for myriad reasons without any public or media attention. But how often are Texas children pulled over specifically for truancy and truancy?
When KXAN requested records on how often this happens, we found there is no clear answer because the state doesn’t track it. Additionally, Texas does not collect exit data on students in sixth grade and younger.
Leakage is not a new issue in Texas. School officials have been fighting to reduce it for decades, slowly enhancing and modifying the data collection process along the way.
The state currently has 19 separate codes called “dropout” to classify why students leave the school system. The codes include classifications for students leaving to study at home or attend private schools; Other symbols indicate expulsions and deaths. Some codes track small numbers of students who leave under certain circumstances, such as the 47 students who dropped out due to a medical injury in 2023-24, or the five children of military members — statewide — who graduated outside of Texas through an interstate compact that year.
At the same time, thousands of potential withdrawals due specifically to school absences go unreported. Texas classifies these students in the overall “other” dropout category, coded 98, in state data. Districts can use the “other” code in cases of excessive absences, when they don’t know why a student left, or if the reason doesn’t fit any other codes, according to Texas Education Agency definitions.
Texas schools coded nearly 38,000 student withdrawals with this “other” dropout code in the 2023-24 school year, making it the second most frequently used “dropout” code. Just one code, reserved for graduates, has more students counted under it, more than 382,000, according to the latest TEA data.
California voters approve new congressional map in response to redistricting in Texas
California voters on Tuesday approved Proposition 50, a redistricting measure aimed at helping Democrats pick up five additional congressional seats in next year’s midterm elections. The measure, introduced to counter Republican redistricting efforts in Texas, was passed by a majority of California voters.
The effort behind Prop 50 was led by California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has emerged as one of the most prominent national critics of President Donald Trump. With the passage of the bill, California is now able to implement a new congressional map for the next three election cycles.
After 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 alleges that the voter-approved map improperly influences voters’ races, making the plan illegal. The group behind the lawsuit is calling for a temporary restraining order to halt implementation of the new Democratic-leaning districts before candidates begin filing for next year’s primaries.
Redistricting maps in Texas also face legal challenges, which continue as candidates begin filing in Texas. The application period for candidates who wish to participate in the March primaries began on November 8 and continues through December 8.