Voters in the Houston, Fort Worth and Austin areas rejected nearly every school tax-rate increase and bond package put to them on Nov. 3, according to unofficial county results, leaving districts to decide whether to cut spending, close campuses or ask again. The main exception was the city of Austin, where voters approved $295 million in park and library bonds. The largest defeat came in Cypress-Fairbanks ISD, the Houston area’s biggest district, where all five propositions failed.
Cy-Fair’s Proposition A, a tax rate election (a ballot measure asking voters to approve a school tax rate above the state cap), received 64,462 votes for and 133,911 against, or 32.50%, according to Harris County’s unofficial results, with all 623 voting centers reporting. The four bond propositions drew between 26.92% and 36.62%. Click2Houston reported the bonds totaled about $1.64 billion. Houston Chronicle reporting put the district’s budget gap near $80 million, and the district said it accepts the voters’ decision.
The pattern held in smaller Harris County districts. Huffman ISD’s Proposition A got 25.73%, Spring ISD’s 45.05% and La Porte ISD’s 36.69%, according to the county results. Channelview and Crosby ISD measures also failed.
In Tarrant County, according to the county’s unofficial results, Keller ISD’s five propositions drew between about 34.5% and 46.6% support, and Eagle Mountain-Saginaw ISD’s two drew about 33% and 30%. Irving ISD’s four propositions and a Mesquite ISD measure were trailing, but with some precincts uncounted the Dispatch is not reporting them as final.
In Central Texas, Fox 7 Austin’s tally of unofficial county results, shows tax-rate measures failing in Round Rock ISD (47.7%, a $15 million request), Leander ISD (44.75%), Georgetown ISD (48.44%), Del Valle ISD (47.58%) and Bastrop ISD (33.67%). Comal ISD’s two bond propositions, which together asked for about $567 million, drew about 40%. One school package passed: Manor ISD’s $391.5 million and $8.5 million bonds, with 55.23% and 52.53%.
The city of Austin went the other way. Voters approved Proposition A, $260 million in bonds for parks, recreation centers, pools and open space, and Proposition B, $35 million for library facilities, according to Travis County’s unofficial results. Proposition A drew 211,842 votes for and 132,911 against, or 61.45%. Proposition B drew 207,036 for and 136,142 against, or 60.33%. Both appeared on the ballot labeled “THIS IS A TAX INCREASE,” according to the city’s election ordinance, and both are repaid from city property taxes. Unlike the school measures, they were city bonds, and the Travis County figures do not include the small parts of Austin in Williamson and Hays counties.
Why this matters: Texas caps how much school districts can raise without a vote, so a failed election leaves a district with the rate the state allows. Districts that pitched the measures as a way to close deficits now must find the money elsewhere. Irving ISD’s superintendent told the Dallas Morning News that nothing is off the table. SMU political scientist Matthew Wilson attributed the results to voters’ concerns about affordability.
The margins were narrow in some places and lopsided in others. Georgetown ISD’s measure lost by roughly 1,700 votes out of about 54,900, and Del Valle’s by roughly 1,100 out of about 22,800. Cy-Fair’s lost by more than two to one.
The Dispatch’s pre-election analysis laid out what was at stake in the Nov. 3 elections.
Results are unofficial until counties canvass them. Round Rock ISD’s board has a special meeting Nov. 16 to canvass, and Cy-Fair has said it will build a zero-based budget for 2027-28. Whether any district puts a new question on the May ballot has not been announced.