\t\t\t\t\t\t\tApproximately three dozen new Texas laws are scheduled to take effect Jan. 1, impacting how artificial intelligence is used in state government, when local officials can raise taxes after natural disasters and how much of businesses’ inventory is taxed.<\/p>\n
Texas\u2019s biennial legislative session ended in early June. Gov. Greg Abbott signed over 1,100 laws passed by state lawmakers, many of which took effect in mid-June<\/a> or on Sept. 1<\/a>. About a dozen other bills became law Dec. 4<\/a>, following two special legislative sessions this summer during which legislators approved new congressional boundaries<\/a>, responded to the deadly July 4 floods<\/a> and made changes to Texas\u2019s school assessment system.<\/p>\n Other measures could not become law until they received voter approval in November<\/a>.<\/p>\n Keep reading for details about some of the bills becoming law in the new year. The following list is not comprehensive; more information about the new laws is available from Texas Legislature Online<\/a>.<\/p>\n Cities, counties face limits on disaster-related tax hikes<\/p>\n House Bill 30<\/a> will tighten regulations on counties and cities’ ability to raise tax rates after natural disasters, Community Impact previously reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n Beginning Jan. 1, the new law will amend Section 26.042<\/a> of the state tax code, which was previously adjusted in 2021 to give local governments the freedom to utilize voter-approved tax rates after a disaster. HB 30 provides city and county governments with two new ways to calculate tax rates after state- and federally-declared disasters, bill author Rep. Ellen Troxclair, R-Lakeway, told House lawmakers in April.<\/p>\n Troxclair said HB 30 would also:<\/p>\n Give taxing entities the option to collect the voter-approved tax rate or charge a tax rate based on the federal standard for debris removal costsBar entities from reusing a disaster declaration for tax adjustments if a different disaster was more recently usedLimit how disaster-related tax rates can be used to calculate future ratesSome proponents of the law said in April that they were concerned about cities and counties \u201cabusing the disaster tax loophole\u201d to raise taxes, while some local government representatives said the previous natural disaster tax exception was a \u201ccritical safety net\u201d for government agencies.<\/p>\n \u201cWe want to make sure that entities that are truly experiencing disasters and need help in recouping those expenses have the ability to do so, but that taxpayers have accountability in what that money is really going toward,\u201d Troxclair said April 21.<\/p>\n Law seeks to place guardrails around AI<\/p>\n State lawmakers worked to regulate the fast-growing artificial intelligence industry during this year\u2019s legislative session. The result is House Bill 149<\/a>, which is designed to \u201cprotect public safety, individual rights and privacy while encouraging the safe advancement of AI technology in Texas,\u201d according to a May 20 bill summary<\/a>.<\/p>\n The new law will create a seven-member Texas Artificial Intelligence Council, which is tasked with:<\/p>\n Tracking AI use in state governmentFlagging AI systems that could be unethical, harm public safety or \u201cundermine individual freedoms\u201dDetermining if any state and local AI rules could stifle innovationMaking recommendations to the legislatureHB 149 also requires disclosure when Texans interact with an AI system on a government website or when AI is used in health care treatments and services. Government agencies will also be barred from using AI to capture a person\u2019s biometric data, such as fingerprints and facial scanning, without their consent.<\/p>\n Companies are prohibited from creating AI systems designed to manipulate human behavior, discriminate against certain groups of people or create sexual and deep fake content involving children, according to the legislation.<\/p>\n On Dec. 11, President Donald Trump signed an executive order<\/a> aimed at ensuring there is a \u201cminimally burdensome national standard\u201d for AI rather than separate state laws. The order directs the U.S. Commerce Secretary to evaluate all existing state AI laws and allows the U.S. attorney general to challenge laws that conflict with federal regulations or \u201cunconstitutionally regulate interstate commerce.\u201d<\/p>\n Trump said his order and future federal policies should not preempt state-level child-safety protections and rules related to state government AI use, although it was not clear as of press time how Texas\u2019 HB 149 would be impacted.<\/p>\n Tax breaks for businesses, surviving military spouses<\/p>\n Four property tax exemptions will take effect Jan. 1, after Texas voters approved them<\/a> during the Nov. 4 election.<\/p>\n House Bill 9<\/a> will exempt up to $125,000 of businesses\u2019 personal property, such as equipment, furniture and vehicles, from taxation by local government entities. Texas business owners previously received an exemption on property worth $2,500 or less.<\/p>\n State lawmakers estimated that the average small business owner will save about $2,500-$3,500 per year under HB 9, Community Impact reported<\/a>, although the nonpartisan Texas Legislative Budget Board<\/a> said local revenues are expected to fall<\/a> by $442 million in fiscal year 2026-27 if cities, counties and special taxing districts do not adopt higher tax rates.<\/p>\n The other exemptions are as follows:<\/p>\n House Bill 247<\/a> will exempt increases in a property\u2019s value from taxation if the land is along the Texas-Mexico border and the value rises due to the installation of border security infrastructure.House Bill 1399<\/a> will create a property tax exemption for stores that sell animal feed.House Bill 2508<\/a> will establish a property tax exemption for the surviving spouse of a veteran who died from an illness related to their military service.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Approximately three dozen new Texas laws are scheduled to take effect Jan. 1, impacting how artificial intelligence is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":104844,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[47401,18728,132,134,133,47409,18739,33263,8550,47398,145,40109,47406,4872,47408,47412,47404,47411,47413,47395,47410,47396,47393,47414,37140,34442,47407,47403,47402,47400,47397,47405,47394,293,22768,47399],"class_list":["post-104843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-ai-regulations","tag-animal-feed-tax-exemption","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-biometric-data","tag-border-security-tax-exemption","tag-business-tax-exemption","tag-constitutional-amendment-election","tag-disaster-related-tax-hike","tag-donald-trump","tag-executive-order","tag-federal-ai-moratorium","tag-gov-greg-abbott","tag-government-ai-use","tag-hb-1399","tag-hb-149","tag-hb-247","tag-hb-2508","tag-hb-30","tag-hb-9","tag-house-bill-30-texas","tag-jan-1-laws","tag-military-spouse-tax-exemption","tag-new-texas-laws","tag-rep-ellen-troxclair","tag-state-ai-laws","tag-texas-ai-laws","tag-texas-ai-regulations","tag-texas-cities-and-counties","tag-texas-disaster-exemption","tag-texas-house-bill-149","tag-texas-legislative-session","tag-texas-legislature","tag-texas-property-taxes","tag-voter-approved-tax-rate"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104843"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104843\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/104844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}