SB1502

New Tax Code Section 26.042(e-1) bars a school board from adopting a rate under the school-district disaster provision in a tax year when all three conditions have occurred:

1. The board previously adopted a rate above its voter-approval tax rate—the threshold normally requiring an election.
2. The district held the election required by Section 26.08 to approve that adopted rate.
3. Voters did not approve the proposition.

This is a same-tax-year restriction, not a permanent ban on later tax elections and not a repeal of every disaster exception. Final law; Existing school-tax election rule.

The underlying school-district exception concerns increased spending necessary to respond to a qualifying disaster that affected the district, where the governor requested federal disaster assistance for its area. It applies to the year following the disaster; droughts, epidemics and pandemics are excluded. SB1502 adds the failed-election restriction to that provision rather than creating a general power to raise rates during any emergency. Disaster provision, subsection (e); Final law.

All five published operative versions match, and the amendment index lists no amendments. The same-year restriction and January 2026 start were already in the introduced bill. Introduced; Senate committee; Senate-passed; House committee; Final law; Version index; Amendment index.

Compare the published text versions in the official text index. A change is not attributed to a specific amendment here without a verified record.

District voters’ rejection of an above-threshold rate cannot be followed by using this disaster provision to adopt a rate in that same tax year. School boards lose that route to additional revenue when the three conditions are met. The law does not itself set a district’s tax rate, reduce an appraisal or specify a household’s tax saving. Final law; Consequences of a rejected school-tax proposition.

The March 16 fiscal note anticipates no significant state fiscal implication, with costs assumed absorbable using existing resources. It separately says the fiscal effects on independent school districts cannot be determined. That uncertainty must not be reported as no local cost or a guaranteed statewide tax saving. Fiscal note.