Several bills passed by the 88^th Texas Legislature in 2023 will take effect on January 1^st, 2025. Here are some highlights.

Vehicle Safety Inspections Reports No Longer Required

House Bill 3297 eliminates requirements for annual inspections during the vehicle registration process for non-commercial drivers. The Dept. of Public Safety posted a reminder about the upcoming changes.

Note that emissions testing may still be required by local ordinances for vehicles in densely populated counties like Travis, Harris, and Dallas County. Be sure to check your county’s website to see if this remains a requirement in your area.

Property Tax Relief Act

Senate Bill 2 from the 2^nd Called Session is referred to as the Property Tax Relief Act. Read the bill summary to learn how this law affects property taxes in Texas.

Many sections in Senate Bill 2 have already gone into effect, but Article 4 takes effect on January 1^st. This part of the bill provides “circuit breaker” limitations on increases to the appraised value of real property not covered by a homestead exemption.

Texas Data Privacy & Security Act

House Bill 4 is known as the Texas Data Privacy & Security Act. It added Chapter 541 to the Texas Business & Commerce Code.

This chapter expands the data privacy rights of Texans by restricting the sale and processing of personal consumer data by businesses operating in Texas. The bulk of this chapter is already in effect, but the procedures for designating a consumer’s authorized agent in Section 541.055(e) go into effect on January 1^st.

Where can I read the rest of the bills?

All bills passed by the 88^th Texas Legislature are on Texas Legislature Online.

To view the bills in the order in which they become law, see the Legislative Reference Library of Texas (LRL)’s Bill Effective Dates page. We also highly recommend LRL’s Index to Sections Affected page to research how specific sections of the law have been amended or repealed by new bills.

Our library also has a list of legislative summaries for the 88^th Texas Legislature on our Legislative Recaps page.

What’s next?

Up on the horizon is the Regular Session of the 89^th Texas Legislature. The session begins on January 14^th, 2025. We’ll have more info on tracking developments during the new session next month.

As always, you can reach out to us with your research questions through our Ask a Librarian page.