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State Republican lawmakers put $17.6 billion in the new state budget to cut property taxes, which are the sixth-highest in the nation, according to the Tax Foundation. However, they could not agree on how to distribute those cuts before the regular session expired on May 29. Gov. Greg Abbott called a special session to get the two chambers to agree. The House plan included a lower, or “compressed” school tax rate. The plan would cut the rates that homeowners pay for school districts’ maintenance and operations budgets but would replace that money from the state’s coffers.

First Baptist Church Olney, Texas will be celebrating its 125 years of ministry here in Olney during the 10:45a.m. on June 11.

The state legislature made a $3 billion investment in mental health programs this session, including a grant program that will fund community-based initiatives “to develop innovative strategies that provided resiliency, coping and social skills, healthy social and familial relationships, and parenting skills and behaviors.”