SB843

SB843 directs the Texas Education Agency to maintain a database of school bonds, taxes and bond-funded projects, including specified charter-school bond information. Implementation is mandatory only if the Legislature specifically appropriates money for it; otherwise the agency may use other available money but is not required to do so. The act itself appropriates no money. Signed June 20, 2025, it took effect September 1, 2025. Final act; History.

For each school-district bond planned, proposed or issued, the database must include ballot wording, the projected debt-service tax rate, election results, planned projects, an accounting of proceeds and projects paid for, capital-project funding sources, costs, budget and size, and resulting increases in the debt-service tax rate. “Interest and sinking fund” means the bond-payment side of the tax information, distinct from the maintenance tax used for school operations. The database also covers proposed or approved maintenance-tax rates and ballot language, plus voter-approval tax-election results and the proposed rate. Section 45.114(b)(1), (3) and (4); Bond taxes; Maintenance taxes.

For bonds issued for open-enrollment charter schools, including designated charter districts, the specified entries are the project list and an accounting of proceeds and projects paid for. The bill does not give charter schools new taxing authority or require them to conduct school-district tax elections. A charter district here is the existing bond-guarantee designation, not a new kind of taxing district. Section 45.114(a)–(b); Charter-district designation.

Districts and covered charter schools must supply the listed information and other information the agency requests for the database. It must let the agency generate geographically separated reports and allow proposed updates or corrections. The agency may contract for development or maintenance; the education commissioner may adopt implementing rules. The act does not itself specify a public-facing search website or a deadline by which the database must be online. Section 45.114(b)–(f).

The agency must transmit the information to the Bond Review Board to satisfy Government Code Section 1231.025 reporting requirements. That linked section was added separately by HB3526, effective September 1, 2025; it covers local bond-election information before and after the election and publication of election results. SB843 supplies the education-agency transmission rule, not the entire underlying reporting law. Section 45.114(e); Referenced reporting section as of September 1, 2025.