According to reports filed with the Texas Ethics Commission by lobbyists required to register in the state of Texas, as much as $376.6 million was spent to influence state policymakers in 2017. Given the state of Texas spent about $116 billion in 2017, spending $376.6 million to have a say in how those billions are spent can be seen as a wise investment, the equivalent of spending $3 to try to shape $1,000 of spending.
Taxes & Spending
May 2026’s Top 10 Most Expensive School Bonds
Next month, independent school districts (ISDs) will, again, ask voters to approve massive new borrowing schemes that threaten to unleash a wave of tax hikes and bigger bureaucracies. These fiscal excesses appear widespread too. Taxpayers in nearly 60 different counties will decide on one or more of the 109 individual propositions up for a vote this election cycle, according to the Texas Bond Review Board’s (BRB’s) bond election database. If these measures are entirely successful,...
April 21, 2026