NEWS
Tier 2 petition earns spot on May 4 election ballot
Petitions seeking a May 4 election to move Montague County from a Tier 1 to a Tier 2 County in regard to annexation were accepted by the Montague County Commissioner’s Court on Feb. 15 with the court giving approval for an election.
The Montague Citizens Protecting Property Rights, which spearheaded the campaign was shooting for a goal of 1,340 verifiable signatures of county voters to legitimize the request.
Elections Administrator Ginger Wall said they surpassed that number with more than 1,350 signatures, which allowed the request to go to the court for action.
Commissioners Mark Murphey and Roy Darden were absent, but the court still had a quorum with Bob Langford, Mike Mayfield
The petition focuses on forced annexation and comes out of Senate Bill 6 which requires landowner or voter approval of annexations in the state’s largest counties (Tier 2, those with 500,000 or more population). Smaller counties less than 500,000 are Tier 1, and these can opt-in to the bill through a petition and election process to move into Tier 2.
Read the full story in the mid-week Bowie News.
By BARBARA GREEN
editor@bowienewsonline.com
The 2026 certified property values for Montague County were released to the 16 taxing entities for which it sets values and for Montague County the total numbers were up 3.591%.
With the arrival of these numbers, the taxing entities can begin serious work on creating their budgets and proposed tax rates. Last year the Montague County Tax Appraisal District had to create two sets of values pending the November homestead election so they were happy things were back to just one set.
Certified values are based on property sales made as of Jan. 1, 2026. Chief Appraiser Kim Haralson said the values held up well during the protest hearings, and while minerals went down some there were a lot of new properties added.
New taxable property totaled $87,505,775 for 1,208 properties. Haralson said people appear to be setting up manufactured homes on some of the two-acre tract subdivision and other subdivisions are seeing people start to build houses.
Read the full story in the Thursday Bowie News.
By BARBARA GREEN
editor@bowienewsonline.com
It is going to be a tough budget season for the Bowie City Council as it works through a draft budget proposal that tries to figure out how to pay for major projects and maintain present operations for the 2026-27 fiscal year.
As per the city charter, City Manager Bert Cunningham presented the budget proposal to the council on July 14, emphasizing without the final certified property values, as well as the final health insurance rates, it truly is a draft. The city staff also await the final bid numbers for the Rock and Pillar drainage project hovering around $2 million with plans to fund it through the budget.
A budget workshop was scheduled for 6 p.m. on July 27 with a public hearing to follow on Aug. 11.
Cunningham said the certified figures may become available by the end of the week, but that is uncertain. Two months ago the city’s preliminary values were up $70,530,035 from the 2025 final values, however, usually the certified values fluctuate slightly from the preliminary numbers, which totaled $497,939,568.
Read the full story in the Thursday Bowie News.
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