2025 · Regular session · House bill
HB103
HB103 requires the comptroller to build and maintain a free public database connecting local bond proposals, tax elections and projects paid for with bond money.
Official caption: Relating to the creation and maintenance of a database of taxing unit bond, tax, and bond-related project information; providing a civil penalty.
Official report lists House author(s): Troxclair, Meyer, Vasut, Morales, Eddie, Hickland. This does not identify sponsors or amendment drafters.
Bill explanation published · Version and amendment review scope is stated below · Individual amendment records may not be separately annotated.
Bill highlights
Selected points from the published explanation. Follow each point to its source-linked context; conditions and limits may matter.
- HB103 requires the comptroller to build and maintain a free public database connecting local bond proposals, tax elections and projects paid for with bond money.
- The requirement covers taxing units under the Tax Code, including counties, cities, school districts and qualifying special districts that impose property taxes.
- The database must let the comptroller generate geographically separated reports and provide a way to propose updates or corrections.
- Deadlines have different meanings: Regular current-year information is due by August 7 or as soon afterward as practicable.
- The comptroller may obtain information from local officials and hire a contractor to develop or maintain the database, but cannot charge the public an access fee.
- For missing information, the comptroller must send written notice identifying what is required and warning of the penalty.
What does it do?
HB103 requires the comptroller to build and maintain a free public database connecting local bond proposals, tax elections and projects paid for with bond money. It requires local taxing units to submit information and creates a $1,000 civil penalty after notice and an opportunity to comply. It does not itself approve a bond, change a tax rate or guarantee that a project is worthwhile. Signed June 20, 2025, it took effect September 1, 2025. Final law; official history.
The requirement covers taxing units under the Tax Code, including counties, cities, school districts and qualifying special districts that impose property taxes. Working with the Bond Review Board, the comptroller must collect:
- For proposed or issued bonds: applicable ballot language and election results, projected debt-service tax rates, planned projects, an accounting of bond proceeds and projects paid for, resulting tax-rate increases, and the estimated minimum annual dollar amount needed for debt service—payments on the debt.
- For tax-rate elections: ballot language and results, the adopted and voter-approval tax rates and their difference, the previous year’s rate, votes for and against, and the resulting rate when voters reject the proposition.
- For school maintenance taxes: proposed or approved rates and the specified ballot language.
The database must let the comptroller generate geographically separated reports and provide a way to propose updates or corrections. Data for each proposed bond must be supplied independently of other proposals, refinancing or tax-rate changes. Final law, Sections 403.701–.702.
Deadlines have different meanings. Regular current-year information is due by August 7 or as soon afterward as practicable. A one-time provision required all available information for tax years 2015–2025 by January 1, 2026; that provision expired January 31, 2026. The database and website link were to be created as soon as practicable after January 1, 2026, not necessarily by that date. These are statutory requirements; this briefing does not verify complete historical submissions or operation of every database feature. Final law, Section 403.702(d)–(d-1) and bill Section 2.
The comptroller may obtain information from local officials and hire a contractor to develop or maintain the database, but cannot charge the public an access fee. The Department of Information Resources must help provide a separate link on Texas.gov/PropertyTaxes. The comptroller must work with the Bond Review Board and Texas Education Agency on rules for a single data-entry method for required submissions. Final law, Sections 403.703 and 403.705.
For missing information, the comptroller must send written notice identifying what is required and warning of the penalty. The taxing unit has through the 30th day after the notice is sent to provide it; failure triggers the $1,000 civil penalty owed to the state. The attorney general may sue to collect. A defense applies when the unit supplied the required information to the extent it was not exempt from disclosure or confidential under the Public Information Act. The law does not call this a daily fine or impose it automatically at the initial reporting deadline. Final law, Section 403.704.
What changed along the way?
The House committee substitute reorganized the filed proposal into a new subchapter, added detailed tax-election fields, separate reporting for each proposed bond, annual and historical reporting dates and the state website link. It changed the launch provision from a fixed January 1, 2026 deadline to “as soon as practicable after” that date. It also removed the filed bill’s clause making mandatory implementation contingent on a specific appropriation. The filed reference to bonds “or other debt obligations” was narrowed to bonds in the final data fields; the bill should not be described as a universal inventory of every kind of local obligation. Filed text; House substitute.
Both indexed floor amendments were adopted and retained:
- Troxclair’s House amendment, April 28: added the estimated minimum annual dollar amount required for bond debt service.
- Bettencourt’s Senate amendment, May 25: required coordinated rules for a single data-entry method.
The House concurred on May 28, so no conference committee was needed. The final concurrence vote was 127–4 with two present but not voting; the Senate vote was 30–1. House amendment; Senate amendment; amendment index; version index; final law.
For the full amendment record, open the official amendment index.
Official bill versions
Compare the published text versions in the official text index. A change is not attributed to a specific amendment here without a verified record.
Who could benefit—and who could bear the costs?
Voters, taxpayers and researchers may find it easier to compare what a bond promised with the projects and tax costs that followed. The value depends on complete, accurate and timely submissions; a database alone does not prove that spending was efficient or prevent tax increases.
Local taxing units must collect and submit current and historical records and may face penalties for failing to comply after notice. A single-entry method may reduce duplicate work, but does not eliminate the reporting obligation. Confidentiality and disclosure exemptions remain relevant.
The final fiscal note estimates $1,258,000 in state general-revenue costs for fiscal 2026–27: $1,169,000 in 2026 and $89,000 in 2027. It assumes one additional employee and includes $1,080,000 for initial technology work; that technology figure is part of the total, not an extra cost on top. It forecasts $89,000 annually in 2028–30. The bill appropriates no money itself. The fiscal effect of the $1,000 penalties is unknown because the number of violations is unknown. Final fiscal note.
The note’s narrative says the database is due “by” January 1, 2026, but the enacted text says as soon as practicable after January 1. The law controls the deadline; the cost figures remain forecasts, not verified spending. Final law, Section 2.
Official sources
- Bill history and latest recorded action
- Bill versions, analyses and fiscal notes
- Action history and votes
- Amendment index
Catalog report retrieved 2026-10-25. Check the official record for corrections or later changes.