Reporting on what Texans pay and where it goes -- appraisals and property tax rates, city, county and school district budgets, bond elections, local debt, and the cost of living.
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.
A family buying the median-priced home in Dallas–Fort Worth in February 2026 faced an all-in monthly payment of $3,518.
Georgia, Indiana, North Carolina and Ohio have each paused their gas taxes in recent months, and the research on what happened at the pump offers an early look at a question Texas lawmakers may face when they convene Jan. 12, 2027, according to High Plains Public Radio.
Early voting opened Monday on a question Texas has spent a decade engineering its way toward.
Most Texans never buy a gallon of diesel, but almost everything in their grocery cart has ridden on one.
By Lisa A. Rodriguez For millions of Texans, the annual Social Security cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) is more than a number.
Early voting begins Oct. 19 in Texas elections where Dallas County and at least eight school districts are asking voters to approve tax rates higher than state law lets them set on their own.
Every Texan pays the same 20 cents a gallon in state gas tax, but a ranch family running two pickups can pay more than twice what a city household does, a long-distance commuter nearly three times, and a home health aide driving between clients gives up a larger slice of a small paycheck, a Texas Dispatch analysis of federal travel, fuel-economy and wage data shows.
The Texas Windstorm Insurance Association's board voted Oct. 8 to ask the Legislature for four changes in state law when lawmakers return in January 2027: a repeal of a special-judge requirement for lawsuits against the association, public money for storm-resistant construction, repairs to the 2025 law that rebuilt how it pays for a catastrophe, and a redesign of the program meant to move coastal policies to private insurers.
The Texas Department of Insurance (TDI) said most homeowners insurance companies that filed rate changes with the agency since July 1 proposed decreases, affecting about 700,000 Texas policyholders, according to an Oct. 7 news release.
The Texas Department of Insurance (TDI) released the results of its Speak Up, Texas campaign, a statewide initiative inviting Texans to share ideas for improving home and auto insurance, the agency said in a Sept. 10 news release.
The Texas Department of Insurance (TDI) issued a bulletin reminding insurance companies that it is illegal to use factors other than insurance risk to set home and auto insurance rates, the agency said in a Sept. 1 news release.
The number came from the regulator herself.
The average Texas household pays about $242 a year in state gas tax, a Texas Dispatch calculation from federal data shows.