Texas experienced tremendous population growth in 2022, becoming “the only state other than California with a resident population above 30 million.” One key reason for Texas’ booming population is the state’s reputation for low taxes and limited government. People want small government and they’re willing to vote with their feet to prove it. And yet,...
For its part, the Texas Association of School Boards is unapologetic—either for its support of the National School Boards Association (which called on the Biden administration to treat parents speaking out as “domestic terrorism and hate crimes” in 2021), or for its advocacy of political goals that the vast majority of Texans don’t share. What...
In the political context, the term “sunshine” originated in U. S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis’ book Other People’s Money and How the Bankers Use It, where he argued that “sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants; electric light the most efficient policeman.” While initially aimed at the business sector, Brandeis’ axiom is...
The Governor, Lieutenant Governor, and the Speaker of the House have all stressed the importance of property tax relief. The Comptroller too. And now the Texas Legislature has weighed in. Yesterday, the House and the Senate released their introduced budgets (see here and here), providing an outline of the tax relief package that could be...
The legislative session is right around the corner and many things are starting to become clear—like how big the budget should be, how much money will be available for property tax relief, and what top state officials are saying about it all. With that in mind, here are five critical policy questions and answers about...
On Wednesday, the Legislative Budget Board (LBB) met to adopt a spending limit to govern how fast the next two-year budget will grow. The biennial ritual is performed in service of observing the state’s two primary spending limits, one constitutional and the other statutory. More specifically, those limits are: “the Article VIII constitutional tax spending...
Texans pay some of the highest property taxes in the U.S. But not all of those tax dollars are spent well. Case in point: Granbury ISD’s purchase and use of a private plane. Last week, a WFAA investigation revealed that Granbury ISD, a small North Texas school district with about 7,500 students, had purchased a...
In the private sector, a business that consistently serves fewer customers faces numerous unpleasant consequences. Layoffs. Furloughs. Pay reductions. Rightsizing. In the public sector, things don’t seem to work that way in Texas local government. Take Austin ISD, for example. For years, Central Texas’ largest public school district has witnessed a steady decline in its...
It’s the first week to pre-file legislation in the run-up to the 88th Legislature and already swarms of bills have been proposed to make big changes to Texas’ onerous property tax system, which continues to wallop renters, homeowners, and practically everyone else. Here’s a look at just a few. House Bill 29: Proposes to prohibit...
A highly controversial article in The Atlantic has issued a call for a “pandemic amnesty,” in which the public is presumably supposed to forget about the lives destroyed, the fortunes lost, and the freedoms smashed due to the excesses of emergency governance. The article’s concluding point sums up the surprising ask: “The standard saying is...
Not all heroes wear capes—some simply skip a meeting or two. That’s how two Harris County commissioners blocked an onrushing property tax hike that would have cost taxpayers there an additional $245.2 million. By breaking quorum, Commissioners Tom Ramsey and Jack Cagle denied the Harris County Commissioners Court the supermajority it needed for a tax...
In 2019, the Texas Legislature passed House Bill 477 into law in an attempt to improve debt transparency (something sorely needed given our fiscal condition). One of the new law’s chief features is the creation of a Voter Information Document (VID), an educational tool that taxpayers can use to learn about newly-proposed debt measures. In...