The Texas Water Development Board meets Friday for a single piece of business: approving the budget request it sends the Legislature for 2028 and 2029. Anyone who wants to address the three members by video must register by noon Thursday; in-person speakers have until 8 a.m. Friday.
That request covers the first two years in which the state’s dedicated water money is switched on. Texas voters approved Proposition 4 in November 2025, ordering the comptroller each year to move the first $1 billion of sales tax collected above $46.5 billion into the Texas Water Fund. The duty begins September 1, 2027 — the opening day of the biennium this request covers — and runs through 2047. The agency has told the public that the earliest it may actually have that money to spend is fiscal 2029, because the transfer still depends on sales tax clearing the threshold and on the Legislature appropriating it.
The board writes the request under an instruction to ask for less. Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and House Speaker Dustin Burrows told agencies in mid-July to build their 2028-29 requests 3 percent below current spending, with schools, Medicaid and a short list of other programs exempt. Agencies may still ask for more on top as separate items. For this board the cut applies to a two-year operating appropriation of about $455 million and 575.5 authorized positions — a fraction of the money it actually moves, since bond proceeds and the water funds sit outside that line.
The agency is in the middle of the largest grant round in its history. Applications for a $1.038 billion water infrastructure grant program closed July 30, with awards due in the fall. Roughly $239 million more is queued for the fund that pays for new supply. The board is also standing up flood warning sirens in the 30 counties covered by the disaster declaration after the July 2025 Hill Country flood, work the Legislature handed it in a special session that September.
Speakers get three minutes and cannot join by telephone alone; the open meetings law requires video. Registration runs through a form on the agency’s site. What to watch is whether the three members send the Legislature the reduced number alone or attach requests above it.
Meeting at a glance
- When
- 9:00 a.m. CT Friday, August 14, 2026. This is a second August meeting; the regular one was August 6. The notice was filed August 6.
- Where
- Barbara Jordan Building, Room 2.034, 1601 Congress Ave., Austin.
- Governing body & chair
- Texas Water Development Board — three full-time governor-appointed members, one each with an engineering, finance and legal or business background. L’Oreal Stepney chairs. No seats are vacant.
- Format
- In person and by Microsoft Teams webinar. Video speakers register by noon Thursday, August 13; in-person speakers by 8 a.m. Friday or at the desk. Three minutes each.
- Live video
- Microsoft Teams; video of board meetings is also posted at texasadmin.com.
- Full agenda
- Secretary of State Open Meeting Viewer · Board agenda (PDF)
Board members
- L’Oreal Stepney, Pflugerville — chairwoman; engineer, named chair in January 2025.
- W. Brady Franks, Austin — former state budget director for the governor.
- Ashley Morgan, Georgetown — attorney; formerly at the Railroad Commission and TCEQ.
Biographies and term dates are on the agency’s own board page. Terms run six years, staggered so one expires February 1 of each odd-numbered year, and two members are a quorum. The three-seat structure and the requirement that the members bring engineering, finance and legal or business experience are set by Water Code §6.052; §6.1011 requires the board itself to approve the budget recommendations it sends the Legislature. Staff contact: Kathleen Ligon, (512) 463-8294.