Today, Gov. Rick Perry signed SB 103, the bill to reform the Texas Youth Commission. Marc Levin, Director of the Center for Effective Justice, testified before the Legislature on TYC this session and authored a Houston Chronicle commentary laying out many of the reforms enacted in SB 103. SB 103 provides independent oversight to prevent future abuses, creates review panels to ensure that rehabilitated youth are promptly released from TYC, allows for greater parental involvement, and specifies that misdemeanant offenders, such as youths convicted of graffiti and alcohol possession, will no longer be sent to TYC. These youths will instead be punished and rehabilitated through community-based residential and day treatment programs that are more effective, less expensive, and help preserve the family unit.”We are pleased that the Legislature and Governor Perry have taken decisive action to reform a wayward agency that, in many instances, worsened, rather than improved, the state of the youth in its custody,” Levin said.
Taxes & Spending
Property Tax Relief in Texas: Plan to Eliminate School M&O Property Tax
Texas’ property tax system has turned property holders into renters, where government is their landlord and Texans who struggle to pay annual tax bills face confiscation of their properties. Additionally, the growth of government is harming taxpayers and the economy through higher taxes and more regulation. For example, Eddie Wilson owns the landmark Austin restaurant...
September 25, 2018