Texas Homestead Legislative Watch
The 2025 special session is closed and archived. This page looks forward: the subjects Texas Homestead Law will monitor when the Legislature next takes up property, land, and homestead issues, and the official records we use to judge whether a bill is real, how far it has moved, and whether it has actually become law.
This is a list of subjects we intend to follow, not a list of active bills and not a forecast of what will pass. For measures already introduced and being tracked bill-by-bill, see the bill watchlist. For measures from past sessions, see the Legislative Archive. We do not send automated alerts; there is no real-time notification system connected to this page.
Subjects we monitor
Many of these subjects appeared as proposals in the 2025 special session and did not pass. In Texas, ideas that fail are frequently refiled, so we watch for their return, measured against current law, never mistaken for it.
Residence-homestead exemptions
New or expanded exemptions, and any change to who qualifies as a residence homestead.
Homestead appraisal caps
Proposals to lower the appraisal-growth limit or tie value to purchase price.
Elderly and disabled homeowner protections
Tax ceilings and exemptions for older and disabled Texans.
Disabled-veteran exemptions
Rating-based and percentage-based exemption proposals.
Surviving-spouse protections
Continuation of exemptions and ceilings for surviving spouses.
Deed fraud & property-recording procedures
Building on SB 16, county-clerk practice, identification, and recording safeguards.
Heirs and inherited property
Heir property, affidavits of heirship, and clearing title.
Agricultural productivity appraisal
Eligibility, prior-use rules, and how land qualifies for productivity valuation.
Rollback and change-of-use taxes
Additional-tax consequences when agricultural land changes use.
Rural land and groundwater
Groundwater availability, subdivision plats, and rural land acquisition for water.
Flooding and drainage
County drainage authority, fees, and flood-management land use.
Eminent Domain
Condemnation procedures: public-use limits, compensation, easements, repurchase rights, and the protections Texas landowners should understand early.
Read the landowner guideBiosolids and PFAS
Land application of biosolids and PFAS in agricultural products.
Livestock health
Animal-health authority, quarantines, and their effect on land valuation.
Disaster rebuilding
Property-tax treatment of replacement structures and disaster-recovery programs.
County authority over unincorporated land
What counties can regulate outside city limits.
Data-center, infrastructure, energy & JETI land/tax issues
Large-load development and tax-incentive programs that touch land and local tax base.
How we evaluate a future bill
When a bill on one of these subjects is filed, we read the official record before writing anything, and we describe the bill only as far as that record supports. Specifically, we look at:
- Official bill text: the actual language, not a summary of it.
- Committee substitutes: the reworked version a committee may adopt in place of the original.
- Amendments: floor and committee changes that can alter a bill substantially.
- Fiscal notes: the Legislative Budget Board's cost estimates.
- Bill analyses: the official plain-language explanation prepared for members.
- Committee actions: referral, hearings, and whether a bill was voted out.
- Floor votes: whether each chamber actually passed the measure.
- Conference reports: the negotiated compromise when the two chambers pass different texts.
- Governor actions: signature, veto, or allowing a bill to become law without signature.
- Effective dates: when an enacted law actually starts to apply.
A bill only moves from "watch" to a published explainer once its status is clear, and it is only described as law once the official record shows it became law. Constitutional amendments (joint resolutions) are treated as pending until Texas voters approve them.
Follow the Texas Legislature
Texas legislation can move quickly, and the date a bill passes is not always the date every provision takes effect. Use these official resources to identify legislators: monitor newly filed bills, follow committee activity, review bill analyses and fiscal notes, and confirm effective dates.
Search Texas Legislation
Search Texas Legislature Online by bill number, author, sponsor, subject, committee, or legislative action. Bill numbers are reused in different legislative sessions, so always confirm both the bill number and the legislative session.
Search Bills by Author, Sponsor, Subject, or Bill Number ↗Search Official Bill Text and Status
Search official bill histories: enrolled text, amendments, votes, fiscal notes, bill analyses, authors, sponsors, committee actions and effective-date information. Official Texas Legislature Online records are the primary authority for a bill’s legal status.
capitol.texas.gov ↗Texas Legislature Online RSS Feeds
Subscribe to official feeds for newly filed House and Senate bills, today’s bill text, fiscal notes and bill analyses, upcoming House and Senate committee meetings and calendars, and bills that have passed. Feed items reflect a bill’s actual stage, a filed bill is not a law.
Official RSS feeds ↗Effective Dates for Bills
A bill may become effective immediately, on September 1, on January 1, after voter approval, on another specified date, or in separate stages, and some bills contain sections with different effective dates. Never assume every provision took effect when the governor signed.
Legislative Reference Library ↗Texas Legislative Party Statistics
View the political-party composition of the Texas House and Senate and historical party information for past sessions. Party affiliation is provided for institutional and historical context only, it is not evidence that a bill is good or bad.
Party statistics ↗
Bill Tracker
Filter tracked legislation by subject. Every card shows the jurisdiction (Texas or Federal), the bill or resolution number, the legislative session or Congress, the author or sponsor, the final or current status, the effective date when applicable, the last-verified date, and a link to the official government record. Status labels reflect each measure’s actual stage, a bill is never described as law unless it became law, and failed or pending proposals never carry enacted-law styling. Because Texas reuses bill numbers in different sessions, every entry identifies both the bill number and the session. Entries were last verified July 21–22, 2026; each card states its own reviewed date.
Featured: New Texas Laws Affecting Rural Land and Agricultural Operations
Several laws passed during the 89th Texas Legislature affect agricultural operations: working lands, livestock identification, land conservation, foreign ownership, public rights-of-way and major infrastructure development. The summaries below provide a starting point. Readers should review the official bill text and consult an appropriate professional before relying on a law for a specific property decision.
All tracked measures, enacted laws, failed Texas proposals, and federal bills
This list also includes Texas proposals that did not pass (they made no change to current law and are not pending) and federal bills still moving through the U.S. Congress (they are not enacted law). Each card’s status label states which category applies.
Current Agricultural Disaster Resources
Resource, Not Legislation
Federal disaster designations and USDA assistance programs can change throughout the year. Eligibility depends on the producer, county, loss, program year, documentation, and applicable filing deadline. Verify current information with the USDA Farm Service Agency before relying on a deadline or benefit description. These programs and designations are not legislation. Last verified: July 21, 2026.
USDA Disaster Designations for Texas
On April 23, 2026, USDA designated 132 Texas counties as primary natural disaster areas due to qualifying drought, making FSA emergency loans available to eligible producers in primary and contiguous counties. USDA has issued additional Texas designations since that date, so confirm the current county list and each designation’s application deadline through the official designation notices rather than a static county total or map.
Official April 23, 2026 designation ↗USDA Disaster Assistance Programs
Programs include ELAP (Emergency Assistance for Livestock, Honeybees, and Farm-Raised Fish), the Emergency Loan Program, the Emergency Conservation Program (ECP), the Tree Assistance Program (TAP), and the Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program (NAP). A county designation does not mean every producer in that county automatically qualifies, each program has its own eligibility rules, records requirements, and deadlines. Producers seeking ELAP assistance for livestock water transportation should preserve contemporaneous records: including dates, mileage, transportation method, gallons hauled, livestock numbers, receipts, invoices, photographs, maps, and evidence of normal watering practices. Requirements and deadlines can vary by program year, so contact the local FSA office promptly after a loss becomes apparent.
Find your local USDA Service Center ↗
Stakeholder and Advocacy Perspectives, Clearly Labeled
Official Texas Legislature Online records are this site’s primary authority. The organizations below analyze legislation from their own institutional perspectives; their views are identified as such and are not official or neutral legal conclusions.
How New State Laws Can Affect Counties
County-government stakeholder perspective, County Judges and Commissioners Association of Texas, via Texas County Progress.
State legislation may change county funding, notice requirements: development review, public-information obligations, rural emergency services and local regulatory authority. County organizations often analyze legislation from the perspective of county administration and local taxpayers. Subjects the association has analyzed include rural ambulance funding, water infrastructure, volunteer fire-department assistance, county law-enforcement grants: county road programs, public meeting notices, public-information requests, development and plat-review authority, property-tax exemptions, and changes to local regulatory authority. Where this site summarizes that analysis, it uses attributed phrasing, “the association supported,” “the association opposed,” or “the organization expressed concern that”, rather than adopting the organization’s characterizations as the site’s own.
Several New Texas Laws in Effect on Sept. 1
Texas Farm Bureau’s overview highlights legislation the organization believes is especially relevant to farmers: ranchers and rural Texans, including livestock-brand registration, working-land conservation, foreign ownership, agricultural regulations and high-speed rail disclosures. The organization’s support for legislation reflects its membership’s interests and is not proof that the legislation is objectively beneficial.
Read the stakeholder summary ↗Policy Commentary on HB 4163
Texas Policy Research supported HB 4163 and characterized it as a property-rights, limited-government and free-enterprise measure. That characterization reflects the organization’s stated policy framework and is not an official state interpretation of the law. For fiscal impact, rely on the official Legislative Budget Board fiscal note in the bill record rather than an organization’s summary.
Official HB 4163 record ↗Proposition 13 (2025): The $140,000 School-District Homestead Exemption
Texas Proposition 13 was approved by voters on November 4, 2025. It amended the Texas Constitution to increase the general residence-homestead exemption for school-district property taxes from $100,000 to $140,000. The change applies to qualifying residence homesteads and does not mean that $140,000 is removed from the home’s market value, the exemption reduces the taxable value used by school districts.
Appraised residence-homestead value$300,000
School-district homestead exemption− $140,000
Illustrative school-district taxable value$160,000
This simplified example applies only to the school-district taxable value and does not account for other exemptions, appraisal limitations, adjustments, or the tax rates of other taxing units.
Source Directory
Official Sources
Texas Legislature Online · TLO RSS Feeds · Texas Legislative Reference Library · LRL Party Statistics · Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts · Texas Constitution and Statutes
Stakeholder and Context Sources
Texas Farm Bureau, New Laws Effective September 1 (agricultural stakeholder summary) · Texas County Progress / County Judges and Commissioners Association of Texas (county-government stakeholder perspective) · Texas Policy Research (advocacy commentary and vote recommendations, always compare against the official bill record)
Educational use only; not legal, tax, or financial advice. Laws, agency guidance and local procedures can change. Verify current information with the official source before acting. Legislative-watch entries state their last-verified date on each card.
Where to go next
Last reviewed: July 22, 2026.