Business

AUSTIN—Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar announced last week that he would send cities, counties, transit systems, and special-purpose districts $1.07 billion in local sales tax allocations for January 2023, 7.6 percent more than in January 2022.

City managers, public works directors, county judges, regional water planners, regional flood planners, groundwater conservation districts, educators and students at universities and community colleges, farmers, ranchers, agency personnel, and the interested public are invited to attend a “Stewarding Our Aquifer” field day presented by Ogallala Commons (www.ogallalacommons. org) and cosponsored by Panhandle Regional Planning Commission (PRPC), the city of Amarillo, and the North Plains Groundwater Conservation District.

RRC reports oil and gas production stats AUSTIN—Crude oil and natural gas production as reported to the Texas Railroad Commission for October 2022 came from 161,356 oil wells and 80,281 gas wells. The RRC reports that from November 2021 to October 2022, total Texas reported production was 1.5 billion barrels of crude oil and 11.2 trillion cubic feet of total gas.

COLLEGE STATION—Texas A&M Forest Service has awarded $522,162 in grants to Texas landowners for the treatment of more than 18,000 acres with prescribed burning. Prescribed burning is an effective land management tool to reduce wildfire risk, improve wildlife habitat, and promote a healthy forest ecosystem.

AUSTIN—In yet another move to improve transparency, the Railroad Commission has launched an interactive map of ongoing orphan well plugging with the use of federal infrastructure funding. The data visualization allows users to choose what they see on the map, including which county to view, the fiscal year, and whether the wells have been plugged or have had a work order issued to be plugged.

AUSTIN—Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar on Tuesday said state sales tax revenue totaled $3.93 billion in December, 10.5 percent more than in December 2021. “Business spending continued to be the principal driver of growth in sales tax revenue, with rapid growth in receipts from non-retail sectors,” Hegar said.

Craddick elected Texas Railroad Commission chairman AUSTIN—Commissioner Christi Craddick was unanimously elected chairman of the Railroad Commission of Texas during today’s RRC open meeting. Following her election, Craddick thanked Commissioner Wayne Christian for his leadership as chairman for the past year.

WACO—Texas farmers and ranchers established policy to help guide the agricultural advocacy efforts of Texas Farm Bureau (TFB), the state’s largest general farm and ranch organization. Policies regarding renewable energy, tax abatements, and foreign ownership of agricultural land were among the policies approved by the nearly 800 voting delegates gathered at the organization’s 89th annual meeting’s business session on Dec.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) mailed survey codes to all known agricultural producers across the 50 states with an invitation to respond online to the 2022 Census of Agriculture at The ag census is the nation’s only comprehensive and impartial agriculture data for every state, county, and territory.