Bearing Witness: Senate Bill 1879 This month, TPPF’s James Quintero testified before the Senate Committee on Local Government in support of Senate Bill 1879, a bill to broaden the scope of what governmental entities must disclose as it relates to money being spent on directly or indirectly influencing the outcome of legislation. The bill has...
Washington D.C. will soon flood the Lone Star State with “free” federal money and some North Texas cities are about to be absolutely inundated. According to a recent presentation delivered at Dallas City Hall, Big D and neighboring cities are set to receive as much as $871 million over the next two years. The tsunami...
Texas ISDs are sitting upon billions and billions of unused tax money, even while they clamor for more federal funds, press for more state aid, and eye more local debt (see here, here, here, and here for example). Meanwhile, taxpayers are getting absolutely shellacked. The fact that school districts are sitting on a goldmine came...
The Texas Education Agency has released its annual superintendent salary update and the new data reveals some eye-popping details. For instance, the highest paid full-time superintendent in Texas makes almost $450,000 in base pay alone. In 2021, Cypress-Fairbanks ISD’s top administrator will pull in $437,018, which is more than the President of the United States...
Was the Constitution a casualty of the COVID-19 pandemic? One federal judge warned that it could be. Striking down a ban on indoor church gatherings in North Carolina, Judge James C. Dever III ruled that “There is no pandemic exception to the Constitution of the United States or the Free Exercise Clause of the First...
A new property tax report is raising eyebrows—especially among Texans struggling to put food on the table. The newly-released report, published every other year by the Texas Comptroller’s Office, confirms what most already suspect: Property taxes are big and growing fast. In 2019, more than 4,200 local governments hit homeowners and businesses with property tax...
Video from a Jan. 5 officer-involved shooting won’t be made public until April, the Austin police say, because on top of everything else, it got cold in Texas in February. According to a police statement, “due to recent city of Austin weather-related closures, APD will not be releasing the video during the initial 60-day timeframe.”...
A year ago, Texas governments were making it up as we went along. Officials responded to COVID-19 by upending our lives, shutting down the economy, and closing schools. Parents became teachers and grocery store stockers became vital front-line troops. Governments further closed bars, mandated masks, and enforced stringent measures that chipped away at our fundamental...
Most people know that the city of Houston will spend almost $1 million on contract lobbyists this year. But some may be surprised to learn that it also employs in-house lobbyists. And these Bayou City boosters excel at pushing for higher taxes, more spending, and less government accountability. The city’s in-house lobby team, otherwise known...
The Texas Public Policy Foundation is taking its message on local government lobbying to every corner in the Lone Star State. Earlier this week, the Foundation launched an aggressive statewide radio campaign educating Texans on the insidious practice of spending taxpayer money to lobby for more taxpayer money. The campaign comes on the heels of...
The Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts has just published a new report detailing the extent of property tax growth over the last few years. The data is revealing. According to the 2018-19 Biennial Property Tax Report, almost 4,300 local taxing units levied $67.3 billion in property taxes on homeowners and businesses in 2019. That’s a...
School district property taxes are massive. In 2019, Texas’ local governments walloped homeowners and businesses with property taxes totaling $67.3 billion, according to a new Texas Comptroller report. Of the total tax levy, school districts, by far, imposed the greatest burden at $36.2 billion or 54% of the whole. By comparison, property taxes levied by...