At the Aug. 10 regular meeting, the Magnolia ISD board of trustees reviewed the district's proposed tax rate presented by Erich Morris, MISD Assistant Superintendent of Operations. 

The projections 
As it currently stands, the proposed property tax rate for fiscal year 2026-27 is set to be $0.9325 per $100 of home valuation. The tax rate is broken down into two portions of revenue:

• Maintenance & Operations: $0.6399 
• Interest & Sinking (debt service): $0.2926

Montgomery County commissioners wrapped up several days of budget talks Aug. 13 with a roughly $552.7 million working budget for fiscal year 2026-27, adding about $15.4 million in expenses to the preliminary spending plan while proposing a higher property tax rate.

The preliminary budget filed in July totaled $537.3 million and included about $6.28 million in unallocated funding for commissioners to distribute during workshops. The budget has not been formally adopted, with commissioners expected to return Sept. 8 for public hearings and final action.

By the numbers: A major piece of the final workshop discussion centered on employee pay and staffing.

The working budget includes a 5% across-the-board pay increase and continued law enforcement pay parity beginning in June 2027. Commissioners also added positions to the Sheriff’s Office and constable offices, with 15 newly added positions ultimately identified across those departments, including patrol deputies, an Internet Crimes Against Children investigator and other support positions. Three County Clerk positions were also included.

Houston airport workers will receive a minimum wage increase of $5 for a new wage of $20 an hour, which will gradually rise to $23 an hour by 2028.
What this means: Mayor John Whitmire signed an executive order Aug. 12 alongside members of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the labor union that represents airport workers, that would immediately begin the new wages.

Workers employed by air carriers, concessions and airport contractors will qualify for the raise.

“This helps, but this is just the beginning,” Whitmire said. “It's not going to be just wages. It's going to be working conditions.”

Before signing the executive order, the minimum wage was $15 an hour at Houston airports, including Hobby and IAH. This is the first salary increase for Houston workers since 2023, when former Mayor Sylvester Turner raised their minimum wage from $12 to $15 an hour.

One more thing: The increase is scheduled to go up to $21 in January 2027, $22 in October 2027 and by 2028 it will be $23 an hour.

Ahead of the 2026-27 school year, public school leaders in Community Impact’s coverage areas shuttered at least nine individual schools to respond to repeated state accountability issues and stave off state intervention. A new Texas Education Agency rule may make it harder for districts to do so in the future.

The details: Beginning Aug. 16, if a district closes a D- or F-rated campus and transfers the largest share of students from the closed campus to a school with a C, D or F rating, the closed campus’ rating will be assigned to the new campus. 

Districts will only avoid transferring a shuttered school’s rating history if they relocate a plurality of students to an A- or B-rated campus.

Stay tuned: The TEA is scheduled to release A-F ratings for the 2025-26 school year on Aug. 14. If a school receives five failing ratings in a row, the TEA is required under state law to close that campus or replace the district’s board of trustees with a state-appointed board of managers.