Texas’ Economic Stabilization Fund (ESF) acts as a rainy day fund to cover state government budget shortfalls during economic downturns or emergencies and is often used for other purposes. The ESF’s shortcomings include it being rather easily raided for purposes other than covering budget shortfalls and stockpiling of taxpayer dollars in the fund. Legislators should raise the threshold vote to use the ESF for nonemergency purposes to four-fifths of each chamber, and consider lowering the cap and allocating funds above the cap to return to taxpayers or pay state liabilities. Read the full policy perspective below.
Kudos, Tarrant County
Fiscal conservatism is alive-and-well in Texas’ 3rd largest county. As evidence, consider that Tarrant County officials last year approved a tax rate below the no-new-revenue (NNR) tax rate, resulting in an astonishing “13.17 percent” rate reduction. As impressive as that was though, county leaders took things one step further by creating a 10% local option...