Texas Legislature

Texas Governor Greg Abbott was in Lubbock yesterday, calling on the state legislature to instate stricter punishments for educators who have inappropriate relationships with students. Our Samantha Larned reports he used a Lubbock County cases as an example for the mandatory minimum sentence he would like to see for such cases. And over at Citizens Tower yesterday, Lubbock's city council approved a maximum property tax rate ahead of budget proposals.

Texas Democrats are urging the Trump administration to delay its plans for building border barriers and roads across the West Texas park. Bulldozers and trucks bearing the logo of the contractor awarded $1.7 billion for the project were seen in the national park on Tuesday as local activists warn construction could start at any moment.

Rising grocery and fuel prices, immigration enforcement fears and the scaling back of SNAP benefits are among the factors advocates are concerned are contributing to the trend.

Data centers are no longer an emerging industry. Driven by cloud computing, crypto mining and artificial intelligence, they are spreading rapidly across Texas, and the projected cost of the tax break has climbed into the billions. On Monday, the state senate finance committee asked if it was time to end the sales tax break for data centers.

The citizen’s group Save Lubbock says it has enough signatures to put the call for a data center moratorium before the city council. The petition will now go to the city secretary’s office to verify signatures. Meanwhile, at the state capitol this week, The Texas Newsroom's Blaise Gainey reports Texas lawmakers began looking at a long-standing tax break for data centers. The Texas Comptroller's Office projects the tax break could total $3.3 billion in 2028 & 2029.

Thirteen years ago, when Texas created the tax deal for data centers, state lawmakers expected to lose — at most — $14 million in tax revenue in Texas' next 2-year budget cycle. Now, state projections show it could lead to Texas forgoing more than $3 billion in the 2028-29 biennium.

Politicians on the ballot this November from both sides of the aisle have pressed for greater scrutiny on data centers in Texas. Recent polling shows most Texans oppose them in their communities.

Nearly a year after deadly flooding prompted Texas lawmakers to overhaul the state's flood preparedness laws, officials say some of those changes are already helping. But many of the state's biggest flood mitigation projects remain years from completion.

For decades, homelessness in Texas has largely been treated as a local problem. Cities operate shelters. Counties run jails and public hospitals. Nonprofits provide housing and services. Police respond to complaints and emergencies. But at the Texas Capitol, state lawmakers are beginning to ask whether that fragmented approach is itself part of the problem.

Lubbock ISD’s school library advisory council first met in November to review books flagged as potentially inappropriate to be on the shelves, in compliance with state law. Lubbock-area state senator Charles Perry helped author the bill which established these councils, but at a recent board of trustees meeting, he joined a group of community members saying the district's process is flawed.