HTX-KTY: Impact 9/5/2025

Fulshear officials have finalized the city’s fiscal year 2025-26 budget and tax rate following a delay to revisit budget needs.

The tax rate approval comes after City Council postponed the budget and tax rate adoption at an Aug. 18 meeting, where council decided against a 1-cent tax rate increase.

Instead, city officials will eliminate one of the police department’s four open positions, using the savings to give a short-term $2,000 bump to hourly police positions, City Manager Zach Goodlander said.

Zooming in: At a Sept. 2 meeting, Fulshear City Council unanimously approved $87.5 million in expenditures for FY 2025-26 with a $19.4 million general fund.

Council also approved a tax rate of $0.167903 per $100 valuation for FY 2025-26, a 3.74% increase from last year’s $0.161856 per $100. 

By the numbers: The city shifted half of the $1 million budgeted for City Hall repairs toward debt, council member Jason Knape said. The other half will go to water and wastewater asset management, Goodlander said.

As one of the fastest-growing school districts in Texas, continuing to lead the Greater Houston area in existing and future residential development, Lamar CISD officials are preparing for the influx of student enrollment as campuses reach capacity. 

"If you don’t plan adequately, then you’re not able to support all the students that are coming in,” Jon Maxwell, executive director of enrollment management, said at the Aug. 26 LCISD board meeting. 

The situation: While officials said in February there would be some alleviation from opening nearby campuses and aging communities, Community Impact previously reported that in the next decade, over half of the LCISD campuses will be over capacity.

What’s being done: District officials collaborate with city planners and developers to determine strategies like rezoning, capping overcapacity campuses and planning for new schools to manage enrollment growth. 

Looking ahead: In the coming months, Maxwell said the community can expect to see the launch of multiple boundary committees to support the opening of two new elementary schools in 2026 and a new secondary complex in 2027.

Tomball Fire Station No. 5 is now home to Harris County’s first Safe Haven Baby Box, giving parents in crisis a safe and anonymous option to surrender their newborns, founder Monica Kelsey said.

The details: The baby box was dedicated Sept. 2 in partnership with Tomball Fire Rescue, Harris County Emergency Services District No. 15, the city of Tomball and community leaders, including St. Anne Catholic Church and the Cotton Foundation, which funded the installation.

Under Texas’ Safe Haven law, parents may legally surrender infants up to 60 days old at designated facilities. The new baby box—installed in an exterior wall of the fire station—locks automatically once a newborn is placed inside and alerts staff through interior sensors, ensuring immediate care, according to the Safe Haven Baby Box website.

Why it matters: The baby box is the 374th Safe Haven Baby Box in the U.S. and the 12th in Texas, Kelsey, who was herself abandoned at birth and has since championed the program nationwide, said.

Around 1 a.m. Sept. 4, the Texas Legislature gaveled out of its second special session of the year. On the heels of a two-week Democratic walkout that stymied bills during a previous legislative overtime, lawmakers moved quickly to pass 16 of Gov. Greg Abbott’s 24 priorities in under three weeks.

The details: A long-debated plan to ban or restrict sales of hemp-derived THC and a measure aimed at reining in local property tax growth were among the proposals that did not make the cut. Those proposals fell apart in the final days of the special session, after House and Senate lawmakers were unable to reach agreements. 

Also of note: Lawmakers also did not pass bills intended to improve emergency preparedness and communications in the wake of the deadly July 4-5 floods; shield certain law enforcement files from public disclosure; and bar local governments from hiring outside lobbyists. 

The governor can call a special session at any time; however, legislative leaders indicated they did not expect to return to Austin to tackle the remaining agenda items.