Dripping Springs residents may see a decrease in their tax bills after the Dripping Springs City Council adopted the fiscal year 2026-27 budget and a lower tax rate at a Sept. 22 meeting.

The big picture: The $28.6 million budget will raise approximately $4.96 million in property tax revenue, according to a news release.

City officials adopted a tax rate of $0.219217 per $100 of valuation, including a maintenance and operations rate of $0.173100 per $100 of valuation and an interest and sinking rate of $0.046117.

A closer look: The average taxable value of a homestead in Dripping Springs is $571,800, a 1.26% increase from the previous fiscal year. Owners of homes with an average taxable value can expect to pay $1,253 in taxes to the city.

What they're saying: “We know this has been a challenging budget year, and I want to thank our city staff for the tremendous amount of time, work and care they put into getting us to this point,” Mayor Bill Foulds said in the news release.

The city of Austin has launched the Austin Bond Dashboard to help residents track progress on capital improvement projects. Developed by Capital Delivery Services, phase one of the dashboard rolled out on Oct. 1 to support transparency and accountability.

Learn more: The dashboard features information on projects funded by the city's 2016, 2018, 2020 and 2022 General Obligation Bonds, which total $2.45 billion with $1.72 billion spent. Users can search for projects and bond programs to find:

• Information and summaries about propositions and individual project details
• Charts depicting project funding and spending
• Status updates showing if a project is anticipated, in design, in construction, completed or cancelled

Stay Tuned: For phase two of the launch, Capital Delivery Services will link projects to their geographic location to enhance the Geographic Information System. The department is also welcoming feedback from Mayor Kirk Watson and the city council.

The average annual insurance premium for a Texas homeowner rose 79% in six years, from less than $2,000 in 2020 to more than $3,500 this year, Texas Insurance Commissioner Amanda Crawford told state lawmakers Oct. 5.

The overview: The rise in home insurance costs has been caused by severe weather, high inflationary costs impacting home repairs and "the concentration of risk" in the insurance market, Crawford said.

Experts said hardening homes against severe weather could help reduce expensive losses from disasters, resulting in lower insurance premiums.

Zooming in: Proponents of home-hardening incentives have pointed to their success in other Gulf Coast states, such as Alabama. Texas consumer advocacy groups and the insurance industry backed proposals to create a similar grant program last year, according to previous Community Impact reporting, but those measures did not pass.

"Resilience helps homeowners long before it shows up in an insurance bill because a stronger home holds up better when the storm comes," said Chelsea Stallings, a regional vice president for the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies.