Sales tax. Texas collected $4.4 billion in state sales tax revenue in September, 11.5% more than in September 2025, Comptroller Don Huffines’s office reported Thursday. Calendar year-to-date sales tax revenue reached $39.6 billion, up 7.8%. The oil production tax brought in $507 million, up 14%, and the natural gas production tax $290 million, up 30%. “Sales tax collections remain above prior-year levels, giving lawmakers reason to keep property tax relief as the top priority,” Huffines said.
Manufacturing. Governor Greg Abbott met with manufacturing and business leaders in Beaumont on Thursday to mark Manufacturing Week, his office said. The office noted that Texas has been the leading exporting state for 24 consecutive years. “Texas wants to rank number one as the most affordable state in the United States,” Abbott said.
Harris County. Harris County commissioners voted 4-0 to put elimination of the county treasurer’s office on the county’s legislative agenda, Texas Scorecard reported. Abolishing the office takes a constitutional amendment passed by two-thirds of both chambers of the Legislature and then approved by voters, the outlet reported. Tarrant, Bexar, Collin and El Paso counties have already eliminated their treasurer positions.
U.S. Supreme Court. The U.S. Supreme Court agreed Thursday to decide whether Immigration and Customs Enforcement may hold people who entered the country illegally in detention without a bond hearing, a policy adopted in July 2025, CNN reported. The case is Rhoney v. Barbosa Da Cunha. Arguments are expected early next year, with a decision by late June 2027.
Federal courts. A federal judge in California blocked the administration’s $100,000 fee on H-1B visa applications, ruling in Global Nurse Force v. Trump that it was imposed without the notice-and-comment process the Administrative Procedure Act requires, law professor Ilya Somin reported. A federal court in Massachusetts blocked the fee in June, holding in part that it usurped Congress’s power to tax.
Alberta. The province’s election agency has approved and sent more than 652,000 special ballots for the province’s October 19 referendum, and voters have sent back more than 131,000 completed ballots that the agency has validated, Elections Alberta said Thursday. Advance voting runs October 13 to 17. Special ballots must reach Elections Alberta by 5 p.m. Friday, October 16.
Alberta schools. Alberta teachers are adjusting how they teach the province’s ten referendum questions under Bill 25, a new law that took effect September 1 and requires school divisions and staff to refrain from taking positions on political matters, CBC News reported. “I adjusted my approach a little more to make sure that I’m really balancing it a little bit more, informing parents a little bit more,” said Calgary social studies teacher Brett Dibble.
TNM calendar. Two Texas Nationalist Movement county teams are out this weekend. In Lockhart, Caldwell County volunteers work the First Friday crowd with clipboards from City Hall at 5 p.m. Friday, the TNM calendar lists. On Saturday at 8 a.m., Llano County sets up an information table on the courthouse square in Llano, according to the calendar.
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