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Economy
Get the latest on jobs, business, growth, and policy shaping the state’s economy with in-depth reporting from The Texas Tribune.
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Texas Legislature 2023
House advances bill that could provide billions of dollars for new water projects and fixing aging infrastructure
The bill aims to create a water supply four times the size of Lake Livingston, one of the state’s largest reservoirs. But it may still be a “drop in the bucket” compared to the state’s needs.
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Texas Legislature 2023
State budget leaders adopt some spending plans for 2024-25 but still no compromise on property taxes, power plants
With two weeks to go before the legislative session adjourns, chief budget writers still have not announced compromises on some of the largest fights facing the Texas Legislature.
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Texas Legislature 2023
Why tax policy experts fear the Texas House plan to lower property taxes could have dire ripple effects
Both the House and the Senate’s proposals on property tax cuts would give modest savings to the typical Texas homeowner, but critics say the House plan could create vast inequities and disproportionately benefit wealthy homeowners.
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Economy
Texas House passes sweeping border funding bill, guts proposed policing unit
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle threw their support behind a new requirement that the unit use only commissioned peace officers for enforcement actions.
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Economy
Lawmakers consider long-shot $2.3 billion proposal to keep struggling child care providers afloat
Three years after the COVID-19 pandemic upset the fragile child care industry, about a third of the state’s child care providers remain closed.
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Economy
Texas troopers renew inspections of commercial vehicles at Brownsville border bridge, triggering long delays
Truckers have reported waiting up to 24 hours to cross the border because of the inspections. Gov. Greg Abbott ordered similar inspections last year to stop smuggling, but troopers found no contraband after checking more than 4,000 vehicles.
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Texas Legislature 2023
New economic incentive plan clears hurdle in Texas House
During the floor debate for a plan to replace the expired Chapter 313 program, House members added that the new version of the incentive must require companies to pay higher wages and create stiffer penalties for noncompliance.
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Broken Pipes
Texas likely will spend billions fixing its water systems. Will it reach these forgotten colonias?
An estimated 500,000 people live in thousands of colonias along the Texas-Mexico border. Largely built between the 1950s and 1980s, these communities have been promised water — but it has never come.
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Texas Legislature 2023
Texas lawmakers won’t shake it off. A new bill aims to stop ticket grabs by bots for hot concerts like Taylor Swift’s.
A Texas lawmaker’s daughter was one of several Swift fans blocked from purchasing a ticket to the new Eras Tour due to bots. Texas lawmakers want to make it illegal for people to use bots to grab excessive ticket sales.