When I read about the new gender groupthink, I can feel myself—and my daughters—being erased. Here’s just one example. Where are men and women, boys and girls in the sex education curriculum adopted by the Fort Worth school district? They’re absent, and there’s no excuse. They’ve been replaced with new terms, “body with a vagina” and “body...
“We need to stay home if you can. This is not the time to relax … We may have to close things down if we are not careful,” Austin Mayor Steve Adler pleaded in a Facebook live video Nov. 9. What he failed to mention is that he was filming that video while vacationing in Cabo …...
The coronavirus has wreaked havoc on lives — and livelihoods. In the coming months, when we hopefully have more answers about how to defeat the virus in order to save the former, cities and counties will have a big decision to make that will affect the latter: How much will they increase property taxes this...
Last week, the New York Times published an editorial declaring the seemingly imminent extinction of Republican women at multiple levels of government. Largely crediting the rise of Donald Trump, the article ends with a discouraging statement — and thinly veiled wishful thinking — that the “future for Republican women in politics looks very bleak indeed.” While unquestionably...
The city of Austin plans to raise property taxes as much as it possibly can — 7.9% — without triggering a potential election to roll back the tax rate. There’s no new, unexpected and urgent need here. City leaders are just trying to circumvent the intent of a new state law that limits property tax...
We’ve seen too many stories lately about school districts squandering money on big-ticket items like a $20 million waterpark and golden parachutes for departing superintendents. Investing in public education is important. To make sure that investment is sound, it’s time for the Legislature to step up and require efficiency audits of local school districts to make sure dollars...
On the first Tuesday of the month, bidders still gather promptly at 10 a.m. on the west-facing steps of the Travis County Courthouse for the tax sale — the auction of properties that have been seized by local taxing entities for unpaid taxes. Some of the sales are of homes once owned by my neighbors...
The Johnson family wanted to stay in Austin. But as the Austin American-Statesman reported in 2017, the tax burden just became too great. “The Johnsons this year would have paid nearly $9,100 in taxes, up $1,880 from five years ago,” the Statesman explained. “Instead, they uprooted their kids from their schools and moved in August...