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Four States Paused Their Gas Taxes. Studies Find Most of the Savings Reached the Pump, but Not All of It

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.

Latest Policy Clips

Why is Texas spending $35 million a year, and why is it getting worse?

How do single moms manage the rising costs of health care?

Why would one hospital system write off $1 billion?

Texas Talks Podcasts

Texans Win the Battle of Concepción

A smaller Texas force defeated Mexican troops near San Antonio in the opening engagement of the siege of Bexar during the Texas Revolution.

Every Texas bill, scored on the issues that shape long-term prosperity.

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Interim Hearings

Rep. Carl Tepper Wants DA Accountability — and a Remedy That Fits the Problem

The reason the Texas House didn't subpoena José Garza had nothing to do with reluctance. The Travis County district attorney had been invited to testify before the House Select Committee on Governmental Oversight, and he didn't come. Members discussed compelling

Oct 8, 2026

Comptroller’s Office Defends School Choice Safeguards as Senators Probe Pre-K Demand and Award Data

The Texas Comptroller’s Office told the Senate Education Committee on Oct. 7 that the state’s new school choice program runs on parent-approved payments and two layers of audit. Senators questioned who is applying and why. Travis Pillow, interim program director

Oct 8, 2026

Houston ISD’s Miles Calls Turnaround Texas’ Largest As Senator Presses on Lost Students

Houston Independent School District Superintendent Mike Miles told the Senate Education Committee on Oct. 6 that his three years running the state's largest district amount to "certainly largest turnaround in the history of Texas." Sen. José Menendez, D-San Antonio, pressed

Oct 7, 2026

Doctors Say Insurers Block Menopause Care as Health Plans Point to Surge in Claims

Doctors told a House subcommittee Oct. 5 that insurer rules, thin physician training and Medicaid gaps keep Texas women from menopause care. The health plans' lobbyist said coverage is not the barrier, and pointed to a surge in claims. Chair

Oct 7, 2026

Four-Day School Weeks Cost Students Learning, Education Commissioner Tells Senate Panel

Texas students lose ground when their districts move to four-day school weeks, Education Commissioner Mike Morath told the Senate Education Committee on Oct. 6. By the end of the hearing's longest charge, the chair said she sees no benefit in

Oct 7, 2026

Grid & Power

Dr. Joshua Rhodes Ran the Numbers on Texas’s 400-Gigawatt Forecast

Dr. Joshua Rhodes did the math so the rest of Texas wouldn't have to. The headline figure in Texas energy right now is the size of ERCOT's large-load queue — the electricity that data centers and other big industrial users

Oct 22, 2026

Texas PUC Approves a Data Center’s Hookup to a Pecos County Solar Farm Over the Utility’s Objection as Amazon’s Nuclear Deal Awaits a December Decision

The Public Utility Commission of Texas approved a plan to run a 180-megawatt data center directly off a Pecos County solar farm on Oct. 15, overruling the local wires utility, which had argued the grid study behind the deal was

Oct 19, 2026

Texas Data Centers Seeking 75 Megawatts or More Now Owe $100,000 Up Front and $50,000 a Megawatt in Security

Any company that wants to plug a data center or other very large power user into the Texas grid must now put down $100,000 for a study and post $50,000 for every megawatt it requests, under a Public Utility Commission

Oct 9, 2026

Texas PUC Won’t Make Data Centers Measure the Power and Water They Use

Texas will not require data centers to measure how much electricity and water they use inside their buildings. State utility regulators turned the idea down Oct. 1 — not on its merits, which they never reached, but because the proposal

Oct 5, 2026

Senators Press for Competitive Bidding and Cost Controls as Transmission Price Tags Climb

Senators spent more than six hours Sept. 30 asking who should control the cost of Texas' transmission buildout, with witnesses urging competitive bidding, a lower guaranteed return for utilities and relief for ratepayers before the 765-kV Permian Basin lines are

Oct 2, 2026

Education

New Texas Rule Withholds Charter School Facilities Aid From Schools With Failing Ratings

Texas charter schools with an unacceptable academic rating or a failing financial rating can no longer collect state money for their buildings under a rule that took effect Oct. 25. The Texas Education Agency (TEA) published the adopted rule in

Oct 26, 2026

New TEA Rule Cuts School Deadline to Report Suspected Child Abuse to 24 Hours

Texas school districts and charter schools will have 24 hours, not 48, to report suspected abuse or neglect of a student starting Oct. 25, under a rule the Texas Education Agency adopted and filed with the Secretary of State on

Oct 23, 2026

Analysis: Texas Capped What Local Governments Can Take. On Nov. 3, Voters Decide What They’ll Give Up.

Early voting opened Monday on a question Texas has spent a decade engineering its way toward. The state's bond database says voters will decide $62.9 billion in local borrowing on Nov. 3. While that number is massive, the number smaller

Oct 21, 2026

Austin Mayor Says Burnet and Webb Parent Petitions Appear to Have Enough Signatures, but the District Will Not Verify Them Until After Oct. 30

Parents at two Austin middle schools appear to have gathered enough signatures to ask the state to close both campuses, Austin Mayor Kirk Watson said Oct. 16. Austin ISD says it cannot confirm that until after Oct. 30, and it

Oct 19, 2026

Comptroller’s Office Defends School Choice Safeguards as Senators Probe Pre-K Demand and Award Data

The Texas Comptroller’s Office told the Senate Education Committee on Oct. 7 that the state’s new school choice program runs on parent-approved payments and two layers of audit. Senators questioned who is applying and why. Travis Pillow, interim program director

Oct 8, 2026

Health Care

Hospital Districts in Hamilton, Fisher and Tyler Counties Are Each Slated for About $7.5 Million in Rural Health Grants

Hamilton County Hospital District, Fisher County Hospital District in Rotan and Tyler County Hospital District are each in line for roughly $7.5 million in state rural health grants, according to a list the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC)

Oct 27, 2026

Texas Proposes Outside Auditors to Claw Back Medicaid Overpayments From Health Plans and Providers, Projecting $72 Million a Year

Texas wants to hire private auditors to hunt for overpayments in the part of Medicaid run through private health plans, and the state estimates the effort would return $72.4 million a year once it is fully running. The Texas Health

Oct 26, 2026

A Texas Nursing Program Taught Pediatrics and Childbirth Without a Single Patient

Twenty student nurses at Hill College finished their pediatrics and childbirth courses without ever caring for a real patient, and the Texas Board of Nursing would not let their graduation papers be signed until they went back and did the

Oct 26, 2026

Nearly a Third of Medicaid-Approved In-Home Nursing Hours for Texas Children Went Unstaffed

Nearly a third of the in-home nursing hours that Texas Medicaid approved for medically fragile children were never delivered, state health officials told a public meeting in Austin on Oct. 15. The service is private duty nursing: continuous skilled nursing

Oct 23, 2026

Texas Veterinary Complaints Nearly Doubled, and Staff Closed 68 Without a Board Vote

Texans filed 1,662 complaints against veterinarians last year, nearly double the year before. On Oct. 20 the state board that decides them closed about 150 without any discipline, in block votes that named no case aloud, over the objections of

Oct 22, 2026

Water

Edwards Aquifer Authority Returns San Antonio Pool to Stage 3, Cutting Permitted Pumping 35 Percent Five Days After Easing to Stage 2

Farms, factories and water utilities that pump from the Edwards Aquifer are back under the deepest cut in the aquifer's drought plan: a 35 percent reduction in their permitted withdrawals, up from 30 percent. The Edwards Aquifer Authority, the groundwater

Oct 27, 2026

Edwards Aquifer Authority Steps Back to Stage 2, Easing Pumping Cuts to 30 Percent While San Antonio Stays in Stage 3 Watering Rules

Farms, factories and water utilities that pump from the Edwards Aquifer will now have their permitted withdrawals cut 30 percent instead of 35 percent, after the agency that regulates the aquifer moved the San Antonio Pool back to a less

Oct 22, 2026

Texas Will Cite Water Systems That Never Told Customers Their Line May Be Lead

Texas water utilities that never told their customers the pipe running into the house might be made of lead will start collecting violations by the end of October, the state’s environmental agency said Oct. 13 — and it does not

Oct 14, 2026

Texas Drought Eased Sharply in Early October, but Reservoirs Still Sit Below Last Year and the Worst-Off Lakes Have Not Recovered

Drought covers far less of Texas than it did a week earlier, but the water sitting in the state's reservoirs has still not caught up. The U.S. Drought Monitor's Oct. 8 map put 82% of the state in drought, down

Oct 14, 2026

Texas Will Let Sewage Plant Applicants Hire the Modelers Who Set Discharge Limits

Cities and developers seeking permission to pipe treated sewage into a Texas creek may now hire their own consultants to run the computer model that decides how clean that water has to be, under a change the state’s environmental agency

Oct 14, 2026

Property Taxes

Analysis: Texas Capped What Local Governments Can Take. On Nov. 3, Voters Decide What They’ll Give Up.

Early voting opened Monday on a question Texas has spent a decade engineering its way toward. The state's bond database says voters will decide $62.9 billion in local borrowing on Nov. 3. While that number is massive, the number smaller

Oct 21, 2026

Dallas County and Eight School Districts Ask Texas Voters to Approve Higher Tax Rates Nov. 3

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. If voters say no on Nov.

Oct 16, 2026

Amarillo, San Antonio and Fort Worth Raised Tax Rates This Month, but Homeowners’ Bills Will Not Move

Three of Texas' largest cities raised their property tax rates in the past two weeks, and the homeowners living in them will see different tax bill changes—$18 a year on a $200,000 home in Amarillo, $35 increase on the average

Oct 1, 2026

Amarillo Republished Its Required Tax Notice With a Figure More Than Twice as Large

Amarillo told its residents in August that the coming city budget would raise $1,596,402 more in property taxes than last year's, an increase of 1.94 percent. On Sept. 10 the city published the same legally required statement again, with a

Sep 16, 2026

A Texas House Panel Takes Up Local Debt Sept. 15, and One of the State’s Most Expensive Local Projects is not on the Agenda

The Texas House Committee on Ways and Means meets at 10 a.m. Sept. 15 to take testimony on how local governments spend and borrow, and on whether the Legislature should cap the growth of both. The charge that will occupy

Sep 15, 2026

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