Last week, the Department of Homeland Security approved a $7.5 billion reimbursement to Texas for costs incurred securing the southern border during the Biden border crisis. House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington (TX-19), who worked to secure the reimbursement after Texas spent more than $11 billion on its border security mission, called it a victory...
Every Friday morning I join the Cardle & Woolley Show on Talk1370 Radio in Austin to announce the week’s Winners & Losers. Today is Dolly Parton Day, 9.25 (get it?), as love for the legendary artist continues to unite the country. Nashville is renaming their airport. Here’s who made this week’s list: WINNER: Trump Bans...
If President Bill Clinton had been sitting in last week’s House Judiciary Subcommittee on Oversight hearing on noncitizen voting, he might not have recognized his own party. During the hearing, Texas Rep. Jasmine Crockett accused Republicans of wanting Americans to believe “there are thousands of noncitizens voting in elections.” Crockett then noted that in “states...
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) recently reported a landmark milestone: the 287(g) program now has over 2,500 active Memorandums of Agreement covering 39 states and two U.S. territories. These agreements authorize ICE “to delegate state and local law enforcement officers the authority to perform specified immigration officer functions under ICE’s direction and oversight.” This...
This is the time of year employers, local governments, employees, and individuals are looking at their healthcare renewals and expect double digit insurance premium increases for 2027. This pours fuel onto the fire of a healthcare system in crisis. Renewal notices often arrive at the last minute so CFOs and HR directors do not have...
Federal preemption should protect the choices Congress made, not expand federal regulation beyond the law Congress has passed. In an age when a diverse and complex consumer market shapes Americans’ daily lives, federal courts have increasingly limited states’ ability to balance their citizens’ interests under their own laws. When a preemption clause is unclear, courts...
On September 10, the City of Von Ormy cut its already low property tax rate from $.12 to zero. Von Ormy has had a history of dedication to low, or no taxes, with 2024 being the first time they even adopted a tax rate since 2014. The city approved a zero-property tax rate even as...
Every Friday morning I join the Cardle & Woolley Show on Talk1370 Radio in Austin to announce the week’s Winners & Losers. Yesterday was the 239th Anniversary of the Miracle in Philadelphia when America’s Founders signed off on the Constitution – a document that is still looking pretty good today, despite being constantly under assault. With...
Across the country, many cities have settled on the same fix for housing shortages: order developers to include affordable units in every new project, or charge a fee if they don’t. Boston does it. So does San Francisco, Chicago, and Denver. The pitch is that affordability comes free, paid for by the market-rate units next...
As the nation marked the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, an old debate returned: Is America a creedal nation—defined by the truths that all men are created equal and endowed with unalienable rights? Or is that claim a later abstraction that ignores blood, soil, culture, and the European origins of those ideas? Mike Gonzalez recently addressed this...
Governor Greg Abbott made parental rights a big focus of his RNC midterm convention speech, declaring: “I put a stop to the craziness by signing laws that protect parents’ rights in the state of Texas.” Texas has indeed made major strides to advance parental rights in recent years, both through statute and a voter-approved constitutional...
Many small and mid-sized cities and counties are right now considering tax rates that, if ultimately adopted, will result in homeowners paying higher taxes. In some cases, those threatened tax hikes are dramatic. To better understand which Texas taxpayers are in the danger zone, I recently surveyed numerous Notices of Public Hearing on Tax Increase,...