{"id":481833,"date":"2026-10-30T22:58:46","date_gmt":"2026-10-30T22:58:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/481833\/"},"modified":"2026-10-30T22:58:46","modified_gmt":"2026-10-30T22:58:46","slug":"kalahari-school-funding-among-allens-2027-legislative-priorities-allen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/481833\/","title":{"rendered":"Kalahari, school funding among Allen’s 2027 legislative priorities | Allen"},"content":{"rendered":"

School funding, infrastructure and a Texas Qualified Hotel Project are among Allen officials’ priorities for the 2027 Texas Legislature<\/a>, which begins in January.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Members of Allen City Council, the Allen ISD board of trustees and the Allen Chamber of Commerce outlined goals for the 2027 Texas legislative session at an Oct. 29 meeting.<\/a><\/p>\n

The overview<\/p>\n

Allen City Council<\/a> approved its list of six priorities during an Oct. 27 meeting<\/a>. City leaders aim to work collaboratively with state leaders while also protecting the ability of local officials to respond to the community\u2019s unique needs, assistant city manager Rebecca Vice said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The city of Allen\u2019s six priorities are:\u00a0<\/p>\n

Kalahari\/the Texas Qualified Hotel Project<\/p>\n

Protecting fiscal capacity and essential services<\/p>\n

Preserving locally accountable decision-making<\/p>\n

Supporting public safety and community resilience\u00a0<\/p>\n

Partnering on infrastructure and long-term sustainability<\/p>\n

Supporting strong local schools<\/p>\n

The specifics<\/p>\n

Kalahari Resorts and Conventions<\/a> is looking to develop a $950 million resort including an indoor and outdoor waterpark in Allen at the southwest corner of SH 121 and Stacy Road.\u00a0<\/p>\n

During the 2023 legislative session, a bill was passed including the city of Allen in the Qualified Hotel Project, which is a program that provides a rebate on hotel occupancy tax and sales tax for 10 years, said Dan Bowman, president and CEO of the Allen Economic Development Corp.\u00a0 Due to rising construction costs and high interest rates, projects like Kalahari have become more expensive, so city leaders are asking legislators to extend the program to 20 years, he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWithout the QHP benefits, these projects just are not financeable at this point,\u201d Bowman said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In addition to this economic incentive, city leaders are also seeking support for local schools.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cOur city council recognizes that strong public schools contribute directly to the quality of life here in Allen,\u201d Vice said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Allen ISD leaders approved a list of legislative priorities<\/a> in September focused on teacher recruitment and retention, school funding and more. Allen ISD board Vice President Bill Parker reviewed each priority during the joint meeting, which includes:\u00a0<\/p>\n

Support the recruitment and retention of highly qualified teachers and support staff<\/p>\n

Adequately fund public schools and state mandates<\/p>\n

Preserve local decision-making to best support students<\/p>\n

Ensure accountability for all publicly funded education organizations.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Priorities were established after speaking to local legislators, attending webinars and comparing notes with neighboring school districts and districts around the state, Parker said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe really had a pretty broad overview of what was going on around us,\u201d he said. \u201cWe took all of that and looked locally and said \u2018What do we really need?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Quality local schools also contribute to Allen\u2019s ability to attract companies, Allen Chamber of Commerce CEO Kyle Jacobson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnything we can do to continue to make Allen the best of the best from a school standpoint is repaid to us, I think, tenfold when it comes to economic activity and our overall attractiveness as a community,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Board President Polly Montgomery said district leaders want to continue providing an \u201cextraordinary experience\u201d for their students and teachers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cNobody moves to Allen for fine schools or even good schools,\u201d Montgomery said. \u201cThey move to Allen because they want an extraordinary experience and that\u2019s our role. It\u2019s to make sure that we keep things extraordinary.\u201d<\/p>\n

Looking ahead<\/p>\n

The legislative session will begin Jan. 12, and March 12 is the last day to file bills, Allen ISD\u2019s Chief Communications Officer David Hicks said. City leaders will have an opportunity to go to Austin and have conversations with legislators on Allen Days, scheduled for Feb. 2-4, Hicks said.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"School funding, infrastructure and a Texas Qualified Hotel Project are among Allen officials’ priorities for the 2027 Texas…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":481834,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[1242,69449,55589,56070,53453,160,162,161,3603,162397],"class_list":["post-481833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-plano","tag-allen","tag-allen-chamber-of-commerce","tag-allen-city-council","tag-allen-isd","tag-kalahari","tag-plano","tag-plano-headlines","tag-plano-news","tag-school-funding","tag-texas-qualified-hotel-project"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481833","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=481833"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481833\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/481834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=481833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=481833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=481833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}