With the passage of Proposition 4 in November of 2025, more than $20 billion in state sales tax revenues will be designated to the Texas Water Fund to address water infrastructure challenges over the next 20 years. While this funding will alleviate some of the headaches associated with Texas’ growing population and provide a boost to the local economy in North Texas in the short term, much more needs to be done.
Andrea Coker, Chief Advocacy Officer for the North Texas Commission, said there is no question that the constitutional amendment’s passage will be a boon for the Texas economy. “The economic impact for the region is, first and foremost, that nobody has to pay any more than they already are,” Coker said. “It’s not an additional tax. It’s the same sales tax we are already paying…the $46.5 billion sales tax collected throughout the state of Texas is just basically put into a savings account and labeled ‘water’ for them to spend on infrastructure projects. “It will not cost taxpayers anything they were not already paying. It will simply dedicate $20 billion over 20 years to water infrastructure.”
But Coker added that the passage for Prop 4 is likely just the tip of the iceberg. “We are using an incredible amount of water,” Coker said. “And if we cannot continue to meet that demand for added infrastructure for growing suburbs and the thousands of thousands of homes that are being built, we have a problem. But then there are also cities like Dallas and Irving, and Richardson that have aging infrastructure. “They have a great deal of water that is lost because of aging and broken pipes. Texas is trying to figure out the right ratio of how much to spend on new water infrastructure and how much of it needs to be rebuilt.”
Coker said uneven population distribution and aging, and degrading infrastructure have complicated this issue. “Texas is divided into regions,” Coker said. “We are Region C here in North Texas. Region D is East Texas, and right now in the water plan, there is a reservoir meant to be built in East Texas to serve North Texas. It is very contentious, but in the next 30 years, Region D will add 100,000 people total. “Region C will add 100,000 people every year for the next 30 years. Water can be a very contentious issue around Texas, just because where it is isn’t always where the people are, and moving it around gets people all kinds of fired up.” According to the Texas Water Foundation, between the State Water Plan, the State Flood Plan, and the EPA’s 20-year needs surveys for drinking water and wastewater, Texas has over $200 billion of identified water infrastructure funding needs within the next 50 years.
“This is not the last you will hear about water infrastructure,” Coker said. “It won’t be like, ‘Oh, we did it, it’s done.’ Now we just have to let people figure it out.’ No, you will continue to hear that Texas needs to invest, and Texas wants to lead. If there is new water technology out there, it is going to be ours, and we’re going to find it. We are going to lead in this field of providing water.” The timeline for the distribution of funds is still a few years off.
The Texas Water Development Board (TWDB) said “contingent upon voter approval, legislative appropriations, and the availability of sales tax revenue that exceeds the first $46.5 billion of that revenue coming into the treasury in state fiscal year 2028, funding may be transferred by the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts to the Texas Water Fund late in fiscal year 2028 and may be available for financial assistance through the TWDB in state fiscal year 2029.”
Coker said that Proposition 4’s passage was a critical first step. “This will have a statewide impact on how water is acquired and distributed,” Coker said. “There will be technology studies through this developing desalination processes that are not yet scalable. I think you’re going to see a rapid technology change as they invest in technology and different types of water infrastructure, but this was crucial. Not passing Prop 4 would have been a problem.”
But Coker re-emphasized that it’s passage was a crucial first step, and much more is still needed. “My friends in the water industry would want me to say that it’s not enough,” Coker said. “It sounds crazy, but $20 billion over 20 years for water infrastructure is not enough for a state this size. I think the report from Texas 2036 showed that we we’re almost $100 billion behind where we should be. So this was not optional, it was crucial—it had to pass to have this kind of investment in our water infrastructure.”
