Proponents of a U.S. carbon tax have been coming out of the woodworks for years, but even more recently, shouting about the need to reduce carbon dioxide emissions primarily from the use of fossil fuels to save the environment. But is it worth it? According to a recently published paper by the Texas Public Policy Foundation, the...
Occupational licensing is a form of regulation that requires a person to register with the government, achieve training, pay fees, and often complete an exam before being allowed to perform a job or vocation. The intended goal of occupational licensing is to ensure public health and safety by mandating quality in a profession. However, the...
Texas ranks the 2nd most economically free state, tied with Florida, in the U.S. according to the Fraser Institute. This ranking is based on levels of taxes, government spending, and labor market freedom. Figure 1 shows states that rank in each quartile of economic freedom. Figure 1: Economic Freedom Ranking by State Research finds...
Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar certifies the two-year budget passed by the Texas Legislature after each legislative session. He does so by using projected general revenue-related (GR-R) funds, which includes collections from sales tax and other sources, to determine if those funds will sufficiently cover estimated expenditures. Here’s the Comptroller’s comments from the 2018-19 budget certification:...
Texans value every hard-earned dollar. They work hard to put food on the table, pay for college, save for retirement and satisfy their desires. Given some dollars pay taxes, every dollar collected by the government should go to essential programs that preserve liberty. It’s essential to evaluate every taxpayer dollar spent and pass a conservative budget...
Texas’ public education spending, in inflation-adjusted dollars, has increased in recent years with little-to-no improvement in the quality of education received. A problem with the philosophy of throwing more money at the education problem expecting a different result is that it doesn’t work. As you can see in Figure 1, per-student education expenditures have been...
Just as Americans mutually benefit from voluntary exchange domestically, so can individuals in different countries within the rule of law. A perfect trade agreement would be one sentence that provides no more than a contractual obligation: “There shall be no trade barriers among countries X, Y, and Z.” The Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF) recently...