Despite the massive drop in oil prices (the average price of oil dropped from $105.78 in June 2014 to $37.34 in December 2015), the Texas economy has continued to grow rapidly, outpacing the national trend and most of its economic contemporaries.
The Texas economy has performed relatively well during much of the past fifteen years regarding economic output and job creation under a fiscally responsible system of low taxes and smart regulation. However, this Texas model can be strengthened to support greater prosperity by reforming the state’s weak constitutional spending limit.
Given that oil prices remain less than half of what they were at their peak, all those arguing that the Texas model will fail are just wrong.
To provide increased budget transparency, the Foundation released six papers in the Spotlight series that highlight each of the ten articles of the Texas budget. In addition to providing taxpayers with timely information about where their tax dollars are going, this series also provides more information about budget trends since the 2004-05 budget in each article and identifies functions that increase by more than 6.5 percent from the previous budget.
During the Great Recession and since, Texas has been America’s jobs engine, creating 34 percent of all U.S. civilian jobs during the last eight years in a state with less than 10 percent of the nation’s population.
Since the 2004-05 budget, the overall budget has increased 69 percent, compared with an estimated 55 percent increase in the key measure.
Moody’s pegged state and local governments’ unfunded liabilities at roughly the same amount, bringing the total U.S. pension shortfall to 40% of GDP.
To have the best economic environment for opportunities to prosper and higher standards of living, regulation at the federal and state levels should be dramatically scaled back. The cost of every regulation must be considered, and those that have a higher cost than benefit should be scrutinized and ultimately not imposed. This is how we can begin to reclaim the American Dream for far too many who feel as though it is out of reach.
It’s time for parents to know the actual tuition of public schools and have the choice to meet their child’s needs through education saving accounts.
The district’s decision to arbitrarily raise its minimum hourly wage from $10 to $12 — a 20 percent pay raise not based on merit — comes at a difficult time for SAISD, which is not only struggling with soaring debt but is also seeing its student population slowly disappear.
This rising red ink must be stopped before stressing families and wrecking the economy with higher taxes, especially at a time of potential bond credit downgrades and an uncertain economic future.
It is reasonable to expect the Legislature to provide transparency and accountability of taxpayer dollars so Texans understand the benefits achieved with their money.